Tripura governor's removal sought over Memon tweets

Kolkata, Aug 4: A city-based rights group on Tuesday wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee seeking the removal of Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy over his tweets on 1993 Mumbai serial blasts convict Yakub Memon.

"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 had tweeted on July 30, hours after Memon was hanged at Nagpur Central Jail in Maharashtra.

Calling Roy's tweet as tantamount to spreading communalism, the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR), in a letter to Mukherjee, said the Tripura governor must be sacked to maintain communal harmony.

"The aforesaid tweet makes it explicitly clear that the same is targeted towards minority community equating them with terrorism, which is tantamount to spitting venom of communalism, enough to disturb the equilibrium of peace and tranquility, law and order, unity and integrity of the nation," APDR secretary Ranjit Sur said in the letter.

"This tweet is nothing but a political statement of a political leader, which is unwarranted from a person holding a constitutional office," Sur said.

"Unfortunately, it has come at such a time, when the entire country is divided on the justification of the capital punishment imposed on Yakub Memon, cutting across political line and irrespective of cast, creed, religion and community," he added.

"This association urges your honourable self that a person with scant regard towards secular fabric cannot hold a constitutional office of the governor of a state, and for that matter, he should be removed from office of the governor of the state of Tripura in order to maintain communal harmony and fraternity among the citizens of this country," added Sur.

While Roy justified his tweets asserting that "governors ought to be concerned about security of state", he has been slammed in several quarters with Congress leader Digvijaya Singh also urging the president to dismiss him as Tripura governor.