People Should Have Been Educated About The Citizenship Bill

MEGHALAYA GOVERNOR TATHAGATA Roy is known for his aggressive remarks, usually laced with a communal undertone.

- Rabi Banerjee

For this, he often faces strong criticism from intellectuals across the country. But he says he is not bothered about how people perceive his tweets. But as India and Pakistan stand eyeball to eyeball, Roy has chosen to tread cautiously, putting a hold on his strong comments on hindutva and Kashmir. Excerpts from an interview:

Do you feel you have been vindicated after what has happened in Kashmir?

Of course. I have been writing and speaking about it for long. Today I stand vindicated.

Your book on Shyama Prasad Mookerjee is a bestseller. How do you see his role in the context of today’s Kashmir?

Shyama Prasad Mookerjee was not an ideologue. He was a political leader and a farsighted leader. He did not provoke any ideology. Those who did that were persons like [K.B.] Hegdewar, [M.S.] Golwalkar and Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Mookerjee had the foresight to see that article 370 would be detrimental to India and had to be abrogated. Article 370 was introduced as a temporary position, which led to an enormous problem for the country. [Jawaharlal] Nehru insisted on it and got his way with his numerical majority in Parliament, and we have to pay a heavy price today. Mookerjee questioned Nehru in Parliament whether Kashmiris are first and Indians next.... He asked this to Nehru. Nehru was speechless and could not answer Mookerjee. Unfortunately, under questionable circumstances, he died.

Today there are talks of withdrawing Article 370. Do you feel Mookerjee’s vision still prevails?