Silchar airport detention : TMC plans to move privilege motion

The matter was raised inside the Lok Sabha by party leader Saugata Roy.  "I said I will raise the privilege motion against the Assam government," Roy told reporters. 

The 8-member TMC delegation, including six MPs, had arrived in Silchar to interact with people left out of the complete draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC)- an issue the party has taken up for a strong protest.

The complete draft of the NRC, touted to be a proof of Assamese citizenship, had excluded over 40 lakh people, triggering a political slugfest between the BJP and other political parties.

However, the TMC leaders, led by West Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim, were not allowed to exit the airport as they were put into preventive detention at the airport on the ground of prohibitory orders being in force in the town.

This led to a scuffle between few of the TMC leaders and the security personnel, who barred their way out of the airport.

The members of the delegation alleged that they were stopped at the Silchar airport and confined "unlawfully" and were treated the "same way infiltrators are treated."

"The way infiltrators are treated... they are pushed back... we were treated the same way... we were pushed back. We were manhandled, even women MPs were not spared." "How can six MPs, a minister and an MLA create trouble in a state?", TMC Rajya Sabha member Sukhendu Sekhar Roy asked after arriving in Kolkata.

Another delegation member, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said, "the way the MPs and a state minister were harassed shows that democracy is under threat."

"We wonder whether rule of law exits in the country. It appears that an undeclared emergency is on," she said.

The Assam Police, however, denied that the TMC leaders were harassed. Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia said senior officers of the force "very respectfully" explained to the team that they would not be allowed to leave the airport as 144 of the CrPC was in force.

They have also been barred from entering Guwahati, as per an order by city Police Commissioner Hiren Nath, Saikia said on Thursday t evening and added that two Assam Policewomen constables were injured during a scuffle by the team.

Launching a scathing attack on the BJP and its Government in Assam,  TMC Rajya Sabha member  Derek O'Brien said the delegation was stopped even though the members decided to go and meet the people left out of NRC in groups of two. They were stopped and "beaten up", he alleged.

He claimed that though the police had informed the members of the delegation that they would not be allowed to move out as the situation is tense outside, police could not show any restraining order to prove its claims.