Assam NRC: TMC Files FIR Post Heckling Incident at Silchar Airport

A TMC delegation sent to assess the situation in Assam post-NRC was detained at Silchar Airport on 2 August.

A Trinamool Congress delegation was detained on Thursday, 2 August, at the Silchar Airport in Assam. 

(Photo Courtesy: ANI)

Trinamool Congress MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Mamata Bala Thakur and MLA Mahua Mitra have filed two FIRs with the Alipore police station and NSCBI (Airport) police station alleging manhandling and heckling after they were detained at the Silchar airport. The FIR mentions the name of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

Six of the eight-member Trinamool Congress delegation left Assam on Friday morning, after overnight detention at Silchar airport. Two others were slated to leave the state later in the day, District Deputy Commissioner of Cachar, S Lakshmanan, said.

The TMC leaders, who had gone to the state to meet people whose names were missing in the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), were taken under preventive detention under Section 151 of CrPC (arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offence).

TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, a member of the delegation, told PTI that the police stopped them at the airport on their arrival saying their visit might create trouble.

A TMC delegation being stopped by the Assam Police, as they arrived to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the NRC, at Kumbhirgram airport in Silchar on 2 August.(Photo: PTI)

‘Super Emergency in the Country, BJP is Politically Exposed’

The incident prompted TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to accuse the BJP of imposing “super emergency” in the country and “showing muscle power”. Condemning the incident, Banerjee claimed her party members were manhandled at the airport.

There is super emergency in the country. The BJP is politically exposed. They (BJP) are showing muscle power. They are suppressing facts. If there is peace (in Assam), why did they impose prohibitory order? The people of Assam are in panic.

Mamata Banerjee, as quoted by PTI

She further attacked the BJP, saying that it is the beginning of their end. “They are frustrated. They are tense and depressed, and that’s why they are showing their muscle power,” she said.

Reacting to the news, TMC leader Derek O’Brien said that it was his party's democratic right to meet people, also adding that the country was experiencing a "super emergency-like situation", ANI reported.

The TMC delegation, including six MPs, was kept in the VIP lounge of Kumbhigram airport in Cachar district under Barak Valley region, sources said.

Trinamool Congress MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Arpita Ghosh, Mamata Thakur, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Nadimul Haque, besides state minister Firhad Hakim and MLA Mohua Maitra were detained.

It’s murder of democracy. We were not allowed to go out

Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, TMC

Ghosh Dastidar alleged that they were stopped and the police could not show them any order in this regard.

BJP Supports Assam Govt’s Move to Stop the TMC Delegation

Meanwhile, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh supported the Assam government's move to stop the TMC delegation.

The TMC government did not allow us to go to Basirhat in the past. They don’t give us our democratic rights. They have no business to talk about democracy. They have gone there (Silchar) to create civil war. They are enacting a drama.

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh

The Cachar district administration on Wednesday night had issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC and banned entry of any person not involved with the NRC process in the district.

The TMC team went there at the instruction of Mamata Banerjee.

Banerjee has been accusing the BJP-led central government of resorting to "vote-bank politics" on the NRC issue and saying that "Indian citizens have become refugees" in their own land.