On August 4 and 5, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) will observe ‘black day’ throughout West Bengal to protest against the Assam NRC final draft, which excluded nearly 40 lakh people in the state, the detention and ‘manhandling’ of its leaders at the Silchar airport in Assam, a senior party leader said on August 3.
West Bengal Education Minister and TMC Secretary General Partha Chatterjee said the party will observe ‘black day’ in every block and district of the state.
“We condemn the way the public representatives were manhandled and detained by the Assam police at the Silchar airport. They being MPs had every right to visit a place, but all rules were violated and our party delegation was stopped. This is shameful,” he informed the media representatives in Kolkata.
On August 2, the eight-member TMC delegation, which had six MPs were stopped at the Silchar airport as they tried to enter Assam’s Cachar district to assess the ground realities after the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published. “We were supposed to interact with some people in Silchar. However, when we landed, the district administration and police officials stopped us from getting out of the airport and later were confined to a room,” a TMC member who was a part of the delegation told media.
TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee led a protest which caused an uproar in the Lok Sabha proceedings and moved a privilege motion over the issue. Union Minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that the leaders were detained to maintain law and order in Assam.
“On the basis of intelligence inputs, considering the law and order situation and to avoid any deteriorating condition, the Assam government detained the honourable (delegation) members who reached Silchar airport. As per my information, the district officials had requested the TMC members with folded hands that Section 144 of CrPC was in force in the entire district and it would not be good for them to go outside. Then, they were detained at the airport,” he had said.
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