Intellectuals write to Prez for action against Tripura Guv

A group of Bengali intellectuals on Friday urged President Ram Nath Kovind to take constitutional steps against Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy, for some of his recent comments on after Assembly election results were declared.

In a letter addressed to Kovind, they claimed the tweets by Roy on March 6 triggered tension in Tripura and elsewhere in the country.

The signatories include Bengali authors Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Nabanita Dev Sen, theatre personality Manoj Mitra, painter Shuvaprasanna, singer Kabir Suman, poet Joy Goswami and filmmaker Goutam Ghosh, among others, writer Prasun Bhaumik told PTI. “I gave my consent to the letter as I believe that anyone holding constitutional post should not make comments on the razing down of a statue, and such comments were inappropriate,” Mitra said. Mukhopadhyay said, “We are passing through a phase when passion is running high. So any tweet should take into account the present circumstances.” A statue of Communist icon Lenin was pulled down by some people with an excavator machine at College Square in Belonia sub-division of South Tripura district earlier this week.

The Tripura Governor had said in a tweet on March 6, “From the telephone calls I receive, it appears that a concerted and motivated campaign is afoot to spread a canard that murder and mayhem have broken out in Tripura. Nonsense! Even the uprooting of the statute has not precipitated any breach of peace.”

In a subsequent tweet, Roy said, “We removed George V from India Gate, New Delhi, Queen Victoria from front of her memorial in Kolkata, renamed Aurangzeb Road, all by Government fiats. What if the government similarly decides to remove Lenin’s statue, rename Lenin Sarani? Any answers?”