NRC issue: TMC leaders stopped at Silchar airport; 'Super emergency' says Mamata

The TMC delegation went there at the instruction of party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI Photo

SILCHAR: A Trinamool Congress delegation which reached Silcher on Thursday to assess the situation in Assam in the wake of the publication of the complete draft of the NRC was stopped at the airport, PTI reported quoting official sources. TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who is a member of the delegation, told PTI that the police stopped them at the airport on their arrival saying their visit might create trouble. "We were supposed to interact with some people in Silchar. However, when we landed, the district administration and police officials stopped us from getting out of the airport and later were confined to a room," IANS quoted a delegation member as saying. The Cachar district administration last night issued prohibitory order under Section 144 of the CrPC and banned entry of any person not involved with the NRC process in the district. The TMC delegation went there at the instruction of party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Banerjee claimed that members of the delegation, including women, were manhandled at the airport there even as she accused the BJP of imposing "super emergency" in the country. "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," the West Bengal Chief Minister said. 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. The draft of the National Register of Citizen (NRC) was published on Monday featuring 2.9 crore names out of the total 3.29 crore applicants in Assam. The names of 40.07 lakh applicants, however, did not find a place in the historic document. Banerjee also stated that the NRC will lead to a civil war in Assam and appealed to the government to stop it immediately. Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has warned against making provocative statements against the NRC and said that outsiders making provocative statements about the NRC will not be accepted. (With inputs from agencies)