Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy blames father of 8-yr-old killed during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Varanasi

On Sunday, Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy blamed the father of an eight-year-old boy who was killed during anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Varanasi on Friday.

The governor accused the boy's father of "dragging him to a political programme" and said the boy "should have been playing at home".

The minor, identified as Mohammed Sageer, was killed in a stampede in Varanasi when a violent mob was being chased by policemen.

Roy was responding to the tweet of Congress national spokesperson Sanjay Jha, who wrote: "An eight year old child is dead. In the Prime Minister's constituency. I hang my head in shame. I hope you will join me" and used the hashtag WhatHaveWeBecome.

Roy, who describes himself as a “Right-wing Hindu socio-political thinker, writer, ideologue” on his Twitter handle,  has a history of controversial statements.

Just last Friday, Roy, apparently backing the new citizenship Act, tweeted that those who do not want divisive democracy to "go to North Korea."

His tweet came hours before protesters reached the entrance of the Raj Bhavan, tried to breach security following which they were lathi-charged and tear-gassed, leaving several seriously injured.

In June, Roy triggered a firestorm by claiming that Bengali boys sweep the floors of houses across the country and Bengali girls dance in Mumbai’s bars. Wondering why a section of the people in West Bengal was opposed to learning Hindi, Roy, himself a Bengali, also said on Twitter that major parts of Bengal were separated from the state.

“The second argument is that Bengal is the land of Vidyasagar, Vivekananda, Rabindranath and Netaji. So why should Bengalis learn Hindi? I fail to understand the link between these four great men and learning Hindi. Who will explain to these people that the era of these stalwarts is long gone, major parts of Bengal have gone too. Now, from Haryana to Kerala, Bengali boys sweep the floors of houses and Bengali girls dance in Mumbai’s bars, which was unthinkable in the past,” he wrote on the microblogging website.

In February, in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack by  Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist outfit in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed in south Kashmir, Roy called for a boycott of "everything Kashmiri", including the Amarnath Yatra and purchasing products from the state.

"An appeal from a retired colonel of the Indian Army: Don’t visit Kashmir, don’t go to Amarnath for the next 2 years. Don’t buy articles from Kashmir emporia or Kashmiri tradesman who come every winter. Boycott everything Kashmiri. I am inclined to agree," Roy tweeted.

With inputs from PTI