Tripura governor slammed for tweets on Yakub Memon

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. - IANS