Agartala, March 18 : Opposition CPI-M and the Congress on Tuesday separately demanded the removal of a Tripura Minister from the state Cabinet for his "highly derogatory and seriously objectionable remarks".

Ruling BJP's ally Tipra Motha Party (TMP) also criticised the State Scheduled Castes Welfare, Fisheries and Animal Resource Development Departments Minister Sudhangshu Das for his "offensive comments".

The Tripura Insaf Parishad, a Muslim organisation, demanded legal action against the Minister for his actions.

TMP supremo and Tripura's former royal scion Pradyot Bikram Manikya Debbarma said: "Someone who is swearing on the Constitution of India should refrain from making such statements. I am indeed shocked and condemn such language by anyone, leave alone those who hold responsible positions in the government."

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) and State CPI-M's Secretary, Jitendra Chaudhury, quoted the Minister as saying "during Aurangzeb's reign, numerous Hindu temples were destroyed, and many Hindus, Marathas, and Sikhs were killed".

"Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru, and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj were brutally executed by Aurangzeb for resisting religious conversion to Islam. The opponent Political Parties, namely the Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the Leftists, endorse the same principle of Islamic brutality, fanaticism, dacoity, uncivilised barbarism and bestial violence, as practiced by Aurangzeb. It is high time for the democratic citizens to be aware of these eternal truths and acknowledge how dangerous for the country these parties are," Chaudhury said, as spoken by Minister Das in his social media posts recently.

The LoP in a letter to Tripura Governor Indra Sena Reddy Nallu said: "Such type of dangerously divisive and inciting communal remarks to divide and push the society towards communal instability, particularly when gets attempted by a responsible person like a member of state Cabinet, who has taken oath obeying, safeguarding and upholding the holy Constitution and constitutional spirits, values and mandates, including secularism as one of the basic salient feature of the same, does not only amounts to his or her unconstitutional, unethical and unjust activity, but it also obviously and undoubtedly amounts to an activity of criminal nature."

Demanding the Minister's removal from the state Cabinet, Jitendra Chaudhury, a former Minister, in his letter to the Governor said that this was not the first time, but Minister Das, had posted such abominable remarks in social media on many earlier occasions too, which clearly shows his habitually unconstitutional and criminal mindset.

Senior Congress leader and former Minister Birajit Sinha said that he feels the Minister's comments could potentially disturb communal peace and solidarity in the state and should be removed from the social media at the earliest.

Sinha, also a Congress MLA from Kailashahar Assembly constituency, said that being a responsible State Minister, Das's comments might disturb the peace and solidarity in the state and incite tension by referring to whatever happened during the Mughal empire.

"The Minister made similar comments on Facebook earlier too, hurting Hindu-Muslim relations. He ought to give focus on maintaining peace in the state as a responsible Minister. The stuff he is speaking about on Facebook, is highly sensitive. I feel these comments should be deleted from social media immediately," the Congress leader told the media.

The Tripura Insaf Parishad, earlier this week, lodged a case against Minister Das at the Irani police station of Kailashahar in Unakoti district, accusing him of fomenting communal hatred through social media.

The Tripura Insaf Parishad also demanded legal action against the Tripura Minister for his actions.

/IANS