Tripura governor's tweets triggers a huge controversy

Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy says he stands by ' every word in his tweet'.

He provoked sharp controversy by his series of tweets on Friday about Yakub Memon, who was hanged on Thursday night for his role in the 1993 blasts in Mumbai.

Roy spoke to bdnews24.com after the controversy erupted.

"I stand by every word I have tweeted. I mean what I say," he said.

Roy said: “I have said that except close friends and relatives anyone else who has gone to his funeral or who has lined up  before his dead body ought to be watched by the intelligence. So what is wrong about that?”

“Why did those people go to accompany or stand before the body of a dead terrorist who has killed so many people? Why did they go? I stand by absolutely by every word of my tweet.”

He twitted that “Intelligence should keep a tab on all (expt relatives & close friends) who assembled bfr Yakub Memon's corpse. Many are potential terrorists.”

Reacting on the CPI(M) terming the execution of Yakub Memon as "miscarriage of justice" and blaming the “government for going slow in the Hindutva terrorism cases”, the governor said Yakub Memon’s death penalty has nothing to do any individual’s religion.

"Everything was done on the basis of the law of the land."

“It’s a question of trial for crime and has got nothing to do with the individual. I don’t know why nobody has question the Communist parties because death penalty is in vogue in China, where even economic offenders are hanged or executed , which does not happen in India," Roy told bdnews24.com .

Roy also pointed out that terrorists are hanged in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

"So why are some people raising this issue here with a religious colour," he asked. 

“It’s a question of trial for crime and has got nothing to do with the individual. I don’t know why nobody has pose a question to what the Communists or Communist parties are saying. But death penalty is in vogue in China. In China, people are even hanged or executed for economic offences which never happens in India. So what would they say about it,” said Roy.

“This man is a despicable terrorist, dreaded terrorist who conspired to kill 257 people. So, he deserves only hanging and nothing less. I can’t see basically how can there be two opinions about this.”

According to the Governor, the Supreme Court of India has taken the most unusual step by holding the apex court in the middle of the night in this case.

“Our government here believes that death penalty is a deterrent, it ought to remain, of course in the rarest of the rare cases. That is the law of the country, now individually if one goes into the case of Yakub Memon, he has been tried in a very elaborate judicial process. I would say a very unusual judicial process after that the highest court of India has decided that he should be hanged and he has been hanged. "

He viewed that state governments giving safe passage to surrendered militants may encourage insurgency but it is for the elected government to decide on the issue.

But he warned that he would interfere if a constitutional issue comes up.