Doctor suspended in Tripura for opposing Citizenship Amendment Bill on social media

October 22: Dr Kaushik Chakraborty, an Assistant Professor at the Agartala Government Medical College suspended for tweets against the Citizenship Amendment Bill and for criticizing the Tripura chief minister. In this connection, Dr. Chakraborty was also served a show-cause notice on 2 August. However, the Tripura government said that the reply to the show-cause notice was “not satisfactory, rather arrogance reflected in the reply”. It was held that disciplinary proceedings would be initiated against him for his “misconduct”.

On 19 October, 2019, Dr. Kaushik Chakraborty was served another letter by the under-secretary to the Tripura government, wherein he was debarred from leaving Agartala and said ‘disciplinary proceedings were contemplated’ against him.

In his Tweet on February 10, 2019, Chakraborty wrote: “I’m a proud Indian citizen from Tripura and oppose Citizenship Amendment Bill as it would alter vulnerable demography in North-East India & create unwanted tension between many communities. On this issue, I am with Pradyot Manikya to protect the interests of legal citizens over illegal migrants.” Chakraborty pleaded that his tweets and FB posts reflected his personal opinion, which he claimed he was free to express.

Meanwhile, Pradyot Manikya Debbarma, Royal scion and former Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee President has extended his full support to Chakraborty. However, later on Dr. Chakraborty said, “I would be very serious in future in making any comments on social media even in my personal capacity.”