The Assam police allegedly roughed up and detained a delegation of eight Trinamool Congress leaders from West Bengal at Kumbhirgram airport in southern Assam’s Silchar on Thursday.
The eight — six MPs and two MLAs — had arrived on a two-day visit to assess the situation arising out of the complete draft of the updated National Register of Citizens (NRC) published on July 30 and meet some people excluded from the list.
Reply sought
The reverberation was felt in New Delhi with Trinamool members trooping into the well of the House at 2 p.m. and demanding a reply from Home Minister Rajnath Singh, leading to the adjournment of the Rajya Sabha.
The Trinamool leaders had reached the airport in two batches by 3.30 p.m., hours after the Cachar district administration enforced prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Cr.PC in Silchar.
A police team headed by Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Mukesh Agarwal prevented them from leaving the airport.
Videos, aired by local TV channels, showed some members of the Trinamool delegation grappling with police personnel.
MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar alleged that the police had assaulted them.
“We went to express solidarity with the oppressed but were beaten up and illegally detained at the airport. This is nothing but unannounced emergency,” she said.
Trinamool leader Derek O’Brien said: “The police didn’t allow the MPs and MLAs to leave the airport.”
Mr. O’Brien said: “Our chief whip in the Rajya Sabha, who is a cardiac patient and has a pacemaker, was roughed up by the police. What is going on? They did not go there to break the law. They are lawmakers and not law breakers. This is super emergency.”
He said Chairman Venkaiah Naidu rejected a notice he had given in the Rajya Sabha under Section 267 seeking a reply from the Home Minister, who was not present in the House.
Police deny assault
The police said the Trinamool leaders were neither arrested nor detained. They also claimed that three of their personnel, including two policewomen, were injured when the MPs and MLAs turned violent.
“They were prevented from going out as the situation was not conducive and we did not want it to worsen. We had asked them not to visit the place but they came,” Assam’s Director General of Police Kuladhar Saikia said.
He also said two cases had been registered against the Trinamool lawmakers – one for violation of Section 144 and the other for causing injuries to three police personnel.
Officials in Cachar said the Trinamool leaders were given an option to either stay at a guest house or hotel under police protection or remain in the VIP lounge of the airport. The MPs and MLAs, including West Bengal Minister Firhad Hakim, remained at the airport till the time of reporting. The Trinamool delegation is scheduled to fly to Guwahati on Friday. But Guwahati Commissioner of Police Hiren Chandra Nath said Section 144 had already been enforced to prevent them from exiting the airport.
Congress MP from Silchar Sushmita Dev criticised the “over-reaction” of the State government. In a letter to Chief Secretary T.Y. Das, she said the Trinamool leaders “should have been allowed to meet any people of the region without breach of peace and tranquillity in the greater interest of democracy.”
Assam leaders quit
Thursday also saw Trinamool’s Assam unit president and former MLA Dipen Pathak resigning from the party along with several other leaders, protesting against party president and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s “controversial remarks” over the NRC.
Two other senior leaders, Diganta Saikia and Pradeep Pachoni, had quit the party on Wednesday after Ms. Banerjee said exclusion of Bengalis from Assam’s NRC would lead to ‘civil war.’
“She made the offensive remark to gain political mileage in West Bengal, ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha election. She never raised the burning issues of Assam at the national level. As an Assamese, I was hurt by what she said. So I decided to quit the party,” Mr. Pathak said. Many Bengali organisations in Assam have also criticised Ms. Banerjee.
