Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy has suggested that India should resort to the method China used in tackling the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 to control the violence in Delhi, PTI reported on Thursday. The governor, however, later deleted his tweets.

Chinese troops opened fire on their own people to suppress pro-democracy demonstrations in and around central Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. China has never provided a toll of the violence, but rights groups and witnesses say it could run into the thousands.

“Remember Tiananmen Square, Beijing in 1988,” Roy tweeted on Wednesday. “And how Deng Xiaoping handled it? Perhaps there is a lesson there on how to handle the engineered disturbances of NE [North East] Delhi! I’m sure all comrades will agree!”

Responding to a Twitter user, the governor wrote: “Of course! Deng rescued China from the murderous cult of Maoism and took it to today’s dizzy heights”.

The thread was preceded by another tweet claiming that the “disturbances” in Delhi were timed with United States President Donald Trump’s visit to India. “Disturbances in NE Delhi [communal, as per Times Now] were engineered to coincide with the US president’s visit,” he said. “Trump, like a true statesman, did not discuss India’s internal matters like Article 370 abrogation, ban on Teen Talaq or CAA. Egg on the face of Left-Islamists.”

On Thursday, Roy defended his comments. “What is contained in the tweet is there,” he said. “I am not going to hallucinate it.”

The governor also took on United States senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders for tweeting on “widespread anti-Muslim mob violence” in India. Roy claimed the violence claimed more Hindu than Muslim lives. “Next Bernie Sanders is going to say most victims of 9/11 were Muslims,” he tweeted. “The first victim was a policeman called Ratan Lal – can’t he distinguish a Muslim name from a non-Muslim one? God help US if he gets elected president. And God help vermont anyway!”

The governor was on leave from Raj Bhavan from December last year till January. The leave coincided with his controversial statements on the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. He had asked those who do not want divisions in a democracy to go to North Korea.