TMC leaders stopped at Silchar SC petitioners whose efforts led to NRC list
ACCUSATIONS Assam police chief says delegation attacked cops, party calls it ‘emergency’
This is super emergency. Trinamool MPS and MLAS were not allowed to come out of the airport. Police assaulted them. They are not lawbreakers... DEREK O’BRIEN, TMC leader
SILCHAR : A Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation scuffled with security personnel at Assam’s Silchar airport after they were refused entry into Assam’s Cachar district on Thursday. The delegation flew to Silchar to take stock of the situation in the aftermath of the publication on Monday of the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) that has excluded over 40 lakh.
Airport officials said the district administration was making arrangements for the delegation’s stay at the airport as the TMC members refused to leave. “They have agreed to return to Kolkata on the 7.50 am Air India flight. Tickets have been booked,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier this week announced she would send a to Assam after calling the NRC a plan to evict Bengalis and Biharis from Assam. She had warned the move will lead to a “civil war and bloodbath”.
Officials said the delegation was shown a copy of deputy commissioner S Lakhsmanan’s prohibitory order barring them from entering Silchar. They were asked to take a return flight to Kolkata. “They refused,” a police officer deputed to prevent them from entering the city said on condition of anonymity.
TMC parliament member Sukhendu Shekhar Ray alleged they were assaulted. “As soon as we reached the arrival lounge of the Silchar airport, we were confronted by a delegation comprising the district magistrate and police officers. A police officer hit me on the chest. Cops also manhandled Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Mamata Bala Thakur and Mahua Moitra.” Dastidar, who is a Lok Sabha, accused police of snatching their cellphones and thrashing them.
Assam police chief Kuladhar Saikia accused the delegation of attacking police. “We have kept them inside the airport. Some of them indulged in the scuffle in which two women police constables were injured.”
Banerjee directed the delegation not to leave the airport as they were detained. Officials said the TMC had been informed about the orders on Wednesday.
“This is super emergency. Trinamool MPS and MLAS were not allowed to come out of the airport. Police assaulted them. They are not lawbreakers but lawmakers. In Parliament, the government is making silly excuses and the home minister did not reply,” said TMC’S Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O Brien.
Congress’s Silchar MP Sushmita Dev asked the government to allow TMC members to enter the city. Assam BJP chief Ranjit Das justified the government action saying their intention was “malafide” and they had come to “emotionally motivate people”.
Three Assam unit TMC leaders, including state president Dwipen Pathak, resigned in protest against the party’s stand on NRC. “The party never raised issues concerning Assam in parliament. But when the state is about to get a complete NRC after years of struggle, Banerjee chose to oppose it and try and create tension in the state,” said Pathak, a former MLA.
Two more cases were lodged against Banerjee in Guwahati and North Lakhimpur for her “civil war and bloodbath” comments. Saikia said action will be taken as per the law. GUWAHATI: Businessman Aabhijeet Sharma happened to meet elderly couple Pradip Kumar Bhuyan, 83, and Bonti, 76, hours after serial bombings in Guwahati killed 81 people in October 2008. The three cried over the situation in Assam and decided to do something about it.
The bombings were the latest in the series of attacks later attributed to the banned National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) with the influx of immigrants as it main grievance. The grievance had continued to remain unaddressed since the Centre had signed the Assam Accord with the All Assam Students’ Union in 1985 following a six-year agitation against illegal settlers. The accord set the terms of citizenship under which those able to prove that they or their families were in Assam before 1971 would be deemed as citizens.
“That meeting was the genesis of the fight against illegal immigrants,” said 44-year-old Sharma, who heads the NGO, Assam Public Works (APW).
Bhuyan, an Indian Institute of Technology-kharagpur graduate, drafted APW’S petition in July 2009, seeking deletion of “4.1 million illegal migrants included in the 2006 voters’ list”.
“Updating the NRC (National Register of Citizens) of 1951 to weed out illegal immigrants was part of the accord…,’’ said Sharma. “But due to vote bank politics, successive governments did not do anything in this regard.”
He said lawyer Arvind Kumar Sharma was surprised by how well the petition had been drafted when they contacted him Delhi to represent them. “He wanted to know if a lawyer had prepared it.”the SC accepted the petition in July 2009 and directed the Centre in 2013 to start updating the NRC too weed out illegal immigrants. The final NRC draft was released on Monday, excluding 4 million of the 32.9 million people who had applied for inclusion in the draft.
Aabhijeet Sharma became the face of the fight for updating NRC as he kept shuttling between Guwahati and New Delhi for apex court hearings.
Due to vote bank politics, successive governments did not do anything to update NRC AABHIJEET SHARMA , SC petitioner
The media-shy couple, however, stayed away from the limelight. Bhuyan is an industrialist and academician while Bonti is a trustee of private schools in the region.
“We are lucky that they [the couple] chose APW to take up the cause. They are the reason why the process started. They have spent a lot of money out of their own pocket to continue the legal battle,” said Aabhijeet.
The couple and their children refused to talk despite repeated attempts to get their comments. “They are extremely private people. Bonti ‘borma’ (elder mother) is scolding me for revealing their roles in our fight. I tell her, it is our ‘guru dakshina’ (repayment to teacher/guide) to them,” said Aabhijeet.
He claimed that illegal immigrants had flooded Assam.
“Publication of the complete draft is only a step in the process. We want names of all foreigners removed from the electoral rolls. I want my 13-year-old daughter to live in a safe Assam without fear of foreigners.”
Journalist Mrinal Talukdar, who is writing a book on the National Register of Citizens draft process, said she has seen how the couple contributed their time, money and effort towards finding a solution to the long pending issue.
“They realised the battle could be won only by going to court and not through agitations. People of Assam should realise their contribution.”