Kolkata: Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien and Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy engaged in a war of words on Twitter after permission for a seminar where RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat was going to speak in a West Bengal government-run auditorium in Kolkata was withdrawn on Tuesday.
Following the decision, Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy tweeted, “Mahajati Sadan was booked for Nivedita Mission Trust, in which PP Mohan Bhagwat ji was to speak. Booking suddenly cancelled on a langda excuse.”
O’Brien responded to this by saying, “Ladies and gentlemen, he is the Governor of an Indian State.”
This started the exchange between the two with Roy tweeting, “Those who cancelled Mahajati Sadan booking are so sick, no courage to say out loud the real reason. Instead, they give the stupidest of excuses.”
In reply, Derek said, “Is this man really the Governor of a State?”
The Tripura Governor was quick to counter and tweeted, “Arrow struck bullseye, huh!”
Refused to give up, Derek replied, “Oh wow the Governor of a State is not done yet. Now engaging on @twitter with me. Huh! And all.”
“Hall authorities say MS (Mahajati Sadan) will be closed for renovation. No last min cancellation. One month notice given to ALL events. Reason for denial by Mahajati Sadan authority is 10 day yearly renovation during puja holidays. No renting of hall during the period,” he added.
Roy hit back and tweeted, “Gawd, the same tired old howl, "how can a Governor, are you a Governor, blah, blah"! C'mon, engage with me on merits! I'm claiming no privileges.”
Following this, Roy went silent on the issue.
O’Brien ended the exchange by saying “Where did the Governor go? Wanted to ask him what the wi-fi speed is like in his Raj Bhavan ????enough fun had. Now going offline.”
Meanwhile, Kolkata Police (KP) issued a clarification on Twitter saying, “Strongly denying the impression being created that KP has denied permission to Nivedita trust program at Mahajati Sadan.”
Controversy started after authorities at Mahajati Sadan denied Sister Nivedita Mission Trust permission to hold an event on October 3 where the main speaker was RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi and Bhagwat was supposed to attend the event for a panel discussion on Sister Nivedita’s role in India’s nationalist movement.
Speaking to News18, Rantideb Sengupta, general secretary of the trust, said, “Initially they agreed to rent the auditorium and we paid the booking amount but later they asked us to bring a no-objection certificate from the Kolkata police. We told them that we will submit the required certificate in two days but on last Thursday they told me that there are some pending renovation work and our booking is cancelled.”
However, Secretary, Mahajati Sadan, Nurul Huda, rubbished all allegations and said, “There was some miscommunication. They are not the only one whose booking was cancelled. There are other organisations who wanted to book the auditorium in October but we refused citing renovation work.”
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