Headlines
Tripura governor slammed for tweets on Yakub Memon
Agartala, July 31
Tripura Governor Tathagata
Roy's tweets on 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon, who was
hanged on Thursday, evoked sharp reactions on Friday on the social
networking site.
"Intelligence officials should keep a tab on all
(except relatives and close friends) who assembled before Yakub Memon's
corpse. Many are potential terrorists," Roy tweeted on Thursday hours
after Memon was hanged in Nagpur Central Jail in Maharashtra.
"Governors
ought to be concerned about security of state. Intelligence keeping tab
on Yakub's mourners is preventing terror. Better than cure," he wrote.
Criticising his tweets, a Twitter user said: "Shame on you Mr governor! You betrayed constitutional values by these tweets."
Roy responded in another tweet: "As a governor he was supposed to be 'concerned' about security."
"When
I suggested 'intelligence keeping a tab', I mentioned no community. So
how come I'm accused of being 'communal bigot'?" he added.
The
governor told IANS here: "In my tweet, I have said intelligence
officials should keep a tab on all, except relatives and close friends,
who assembled before Memon's corpse. If they, other than relatives and
close friends, does not support terrorists and terrorism, why they
assembled there?"
Without directly commenting on the governor's
tweets, Tripura's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist spokesman
Gautam Das told IANS: "The government has taken elaborate security
measures in Nagpur and elsewhere yesterday (Thursday) in connection with
Memon's hanging. Whether governor has any information about any
threat?"
In Kolkata, former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee
said: "A governor holding constitutional position should not comment
like this. Such public comments might create problem."
Amidst a
controversy over his Hindutva ideology, Bharatiya Janata Party's former
West Bengal unit president Roy took charge as the 16th governor of
Left-ruled Tripura on May 20.