Demand for Roy’s removal after North Korea tweet

SHILLONG: Governor Tathagata Roy is drawing flak not only from the opposition in the state but also the BJP after his controversial tweet about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The meeting of state BJP chaired by vice president of the party JA Lyngdoh on Saturday condemned the statement and said Roy’s statements cannot be accepted at all and the matter will be raised with central leaders.
Congress MLA PT Sawkmie said that he would write to Narendra Modi asking him to remove Roy as the governor of the state.
Sawkmie’s statement came a day after Roy made a controversial remark on Twitter after pressure groups agitated in front of Raj Bhavan over the act.
Speaking to media persons, Sawkmie said, “… Instead of calming down the situation, he is creating more controversy.”
Roy tweeted, “A democracy is necessarily divisive. If you do not want it go to north Korea.”
KHNAM MLA Adelbert Nongrum too was critical of the remark and demanded that the governor apologise.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, Nongrum said the state government should ask the Centre to remove Roy from his office. Both Sawkmie and Nongrum termed Roy’s tweet as immature.
“As a matter of fact, the governor who holds the office, who is ranked as the head of the State should mark his words before saying something which hurts the sentiments of the people of the state,” Nongrum said. Quoting from the Bible, the leader said Roy should be careful before making a remark especially at a time when people in the state are worried.
“As the Bible quotes, ‘Proverbs: – 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof’.
Therefore, I demand that the governor should immediately apologise to the people of the state for what he said and that the state government should ask the Centre to remove him from his office.
We all know the truth that the beginning and the end of a war are words,” he added. The CoMSO too criticised the governor and said people have the right to oppose in a democratic setup like India and even the governor in the past had opposed many legislations brought out by the Congress.
“We urge him to stop commenting and instigating the people of Meghalaya. People have elected the government democratically and who is he not to give his assent to the Meghalaya Residents Safety and Security Act? Is he not dictatorial and we never invited Tathagata Roy to Meghalaya nor he was selected by us and we will be happy if he leaves the state,” said CoMSO leader Robert June Kharjahrin.