NRC protest: TMC delegation stopped at Silchar airport

  • | Thursday | 2nd August, 2018

#WATCH Trinamool Congress MP and MLA delegation detained at Silchar airport #NRCAssam https://t.co/G8l2l3OEFp — ANI (@ANI) 1533203460000Our delegation was detained at Silchar airport. This was our chance to tell them that whatever TMC and Mamata Banerjee have been saying about NRC in Assam is all wrong," Purkayastha said. "We could have shown them the real picture that there is absolute peace after NRC publication. They would have known that the 40 lakh people left out of the draft NRC are not just form one linguistic or religious community. It alleged that thousands of Bengali-speaking people couldn’t find a place in the NRC because of the West Bengal government’s failure to verify their documents in time.

#WATCH Trinamool Congress MP and MLA delegation detained at Silchar airport #NRCAssam https://t.co/G8l2l3OEFp — ANI (@ANI) 1533203460000 Our delegation was detained at Silchar airport. It is our democratic right to meet people, this is a super emergenc… https://t.co/neXfVBEvWL — ANI (@ANI) 1533203106000 GUWAHATI: Fearing trouble, the Assam government restricted the eight-member TMC delegation to the security area of Silchar airport when the team arrived there on Thursday afternoon.The Cachar district administration has also clamped Section 144 of CrPC in Silchar prohibiting gathering of more than five persons.Hundreds of TMC supporters shouted anti-government slogans outside the airport.Assam Police additional director general Mukesh Agarwala is supervising the situation at the airport.“The team won’t be allowed to leave the airport and we will send them back on their return flight to Kolkata,” a government official said.The team comprising MPs Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Ratna De Nag, Nadimul Haque and Arpita Ghosh, West Bengal minister Firhad Hakim and legislator Mohua Moitra, who were to address senior citizens at Silchar, arrived at Silchar from Kolkata at 1.05pm.Congress legislator from Assam, Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, who was one of the invitees to the TMC meeting said he is at the airport and that the TMC delegation is not allowed to come out.“My personal view is that the decision by the Assam government not allowing the TMC delegates to come out and meet the people is wrong. This was our chance to tell them that whatever TMC and Mamata Banerjee have been saying about NRC in Assam is all wrong," Purkayastha said."We could have shown them the real picture that there is absolute peace after NRC publication. They would have known that the 40 lakh people left out of the draft NRC are not just form one linguistic or religious community. They are not considered as illegal migrants. Everybody is getting a chance to file claims,” he added.In Silchar, the nerve centre of the Barak Valley, the All Cachar Karimganj Hailakandi Students’ Association warned that Mamata Banerjee’s utterances could trigger unrest in Assam. It alleged that thousands of Bengali-speaking people couldn’t find a place in the NRC because of the West Bengal government’s failure to verify their documents in time. Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi are the three districts that comprise the Barak Valley.Assam Police, too, were worried about the inclusion of Bongaon MP Mamata Thakur, who represents the Matuas (or Namasudras, recognized as a Scheduled Caste) who form the second-largest segment of people who migrated to India from erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, after Partition. Assam also has a sizeable number of Namasudras.

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