Kolkata: Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy wants a return to active politics in his native West Bengal but has a word of advice for his partymen in the state — stop promoting cow dung and urine as potential cures to the Covid-19 virus.
In an exclusive interview to ThePrint, the 74-year-old Governor, who was a professor at Jadavpur University and is the founder head of its Department of Construction Engineering, said that the whole BJP discourse around cow urine and cow dung was “unscientific” and made party leaders a laughing stock.
“I am hurt and pained to see that some of our leaders campaign for drinking cow-urine or cow-dung as an immunity shield against coronavirus,” Roy told ThePrint. “All these statements such as mentioning the presence of gold in cow milk make the party a laughing stock.”
Roy, however, insisted that he was only commenting on the ideas and not on individuals even though it was state BJP president Dilip Ghosh who publicly said cow-urine would protect one against the coronavirus infection and had last year, claimed that cow milk contains gold.
Roy said such “cow campaigns” have hurt him personally.
“This particular cow campaign caused me personal pain and shame. I am active on Twitter and I keep commenting on political theories and observations. I have written several books on the communist violence and how they caused disasters in states including Bengal,” he said.
“So, a few days ago, I shared a link to a research I found in an European Neurological Journal, which said that Lenin had died of syphilis. The comrades cannot deny facts, so they attacked me with vile language. They asked me to drink cow urine and cow dung. This is nonsense. Why should I bear with this? This particular thing caused me immense pain.”
Asked if he was playing on the perception that Bengalis would see through such ‘cow campaigns’ and so wanted to distance himself from the current crop of BJP leaders now that he is looking to return to politics, Roy said, “This whole campaign about drinking cow urine is unscientific. It’s not about Bengal or UP or the Hindi heartland. It will remain unscientific for the whole country.”
He, however, made it clear that he was looking at returning to active politics ahead of the 2021 assembly elections in the state.
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‘Would now like to return to Bengal politics’
Roy’s tenure as the Meghalaya governor ended on 20 May but he has been asked to continue in the post due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But the former president of the BJP’s Bengal unit (2002-06) said he is now keen to return to his home state.
“I am a political animal and I never wanted myself out of the gambit of politics. I was made a governor for some reasons. It was a decision communicated to me and I, as a disciplined person, accepted it,” he said.
“But now that I have completed five years as a governor, I want to return to politics in which I have invested over 25 years of my life. I used to be with the BJP when no one thought of the saffron as a force in the state. My friends and colleagues used to mock me then, but I always believed in the party and its ideology.”
Roy further said he mentioned his wish to re-join politics to Union Minister Amit Shah last year when they met in Delhi following Shah’s appointment. “I expressed my feeling. He smiled,” he said. “Many top leaders in the party know about my wish. I will wait for the party’s decision. If they take me back, I will work, if they don’t by citing my age, I will do other stuff.”
The governor also insisted that re-joining active politics after holding a constitutional post is not ‘legally and constitutionally’ wrong and has many precedents. “Starting from Arjun Singh, Sheila Dikshit to Motilal Vora, there are many such politicians who returned to active politics after serving their respective terms as state governors. So now this is the party’s call.”
Roy’s term as governor has not been without controversies as the BJP leader is known to tweet communally sensitive takes.
On Tuesday, Roy compared Lebanon, where a massive blast has killed 163 people, to West Bengal and said the state is suffering from illegal migration of Bangladeshi Muslims who were being indulged by the state government.
Very perceptive tweet. To this add the over-politicization of the polity in West Bengal in which every fact is perceived thru political lenses and action taken with political objectives in mind. It was started by the Left and faithfully continued by the present govt …contd https://t.co/tmyolio47K
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) August 11, 2020
He had made a similar jibe in 2018 when he said Bangladeshi Muslims living in India were illegal immigrants.
In another such controversial tweet, Roy suggested Tiananmen-like treatment for Delhi riots but he deleted the tweet after outrage.
Such tweets have also earned flak as they were seen as being inappropriate from a person holding the office of the Governor.
Roy, however, maintains that the Constitution never bars governors from expressing their opinion. “I have never commented on contemporary politics,” he said. “I have expressed opinions on a particular political theory.”
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