Tathagata Roy rejects 26/11 tweet, questions Indo-Pak relations

KOLKATA: On the 10th anniversary of 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy asked why the diplomatic relationship with Pakistan was not ‘downgraded’ in 2008. Roy who landed himself in a fresh controversy by tweeting about the Pakistani terrorists sparing the Muslims, told ET that the first part of the tweet was ‘factually wrong’ and that was why he promptly deleted it, but the second one on downgrading the relationship with Pakistan had nothing to do with the 10th anniversary of the attack and he stood by what he said.

“I have put a general question. I asked people that if anybody remembered an instance of downgrading the diplomatic relationship with Pakistan following the terror attack. I still stand by that. There are cases when countries downgrade their diplomatic terms with another country over issues of extreme displeasure. And in our country, following the Mumbai terror attack, we should have gone for an extreme action and lower our diplomatic terms. At least we should have expressed our extreme displeasure by doing that as we had reasons. It was normal,” Roy told ET over phone from Meghalaya.

About his first lines in the tweet he said, “It was a mistake. I apologized for that. Jawaharlal Nehru committed so many mistakes. I am a tiny person. I am entitled to one or two mistakes.”


For critics who said controversial comments do not suit a governor, Roy had a sharp response, “I have not made a comment. I have asked a general question. Can I not ask a question to people?”