The Trinamool Congress will stage demonstrations across West Bengal on Saturday and Sunday in protest against the detention and alleged manhandling of its delegation in Silchar on Thursday.
The delegation of six MPs, an MLA and West Bengal’s Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim went to Assam to assess the ground reality following the publication of the complete draft of the updated National Register of Citizens.
“We condemn the way in which the delegation of elected public representatives was manhandled and detained by the Assam police at the airport in Silchar. We will observe a black day across Bengal in protest against such an illegal and undemocratic act,” Trinamool secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Hakim alleged that the NRC was updated with the intention of generating “communal tensions”.
“If MPs and MLAs are prevented in such an illegal manner from visiting a place, can you believe that poor and marginalised people whose names did not figure in the NRC will get a proper hearing,” Mr. Hakim asked.
He was speaking to presspersons at the Kolkata airport after returning from Silchar earlier in the day.
Mahua Moitra, MP and member of the delegation, has lodged a complaint against Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonwal at the Alipore police station in Kolkata.