Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) will observe "black day" throughout West Bengal on Saturday and Sunday to protest the detention and "manhandling" of its leaders at the Silchar airport in Assam.
TMC secretary general and West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said the party will observe "black day" in every block and district of the state.
"We condemn the way the public representatives were manhandled and detained by the Assam police at the Silchar airport. They being MPs had every right to visit a place, but all rules were violated and our party delegation was stopped. This is shameful," he told reporters.
An eight-member TMC delegation comprising six MPs, an MLA and a state minister was stopped at the Silchar airport when its members tried to enter Assam's Cachar district to assess the ground reality after the final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was published in the north-eastern state on Monday.
"The way our MPs were stopped only proves that the BJP is trying to hide something. We will fight till the end and expose them," Chatterjee said.
The TMC top brass has asked the party's district units to organise protest rallies in various parts of the state and wear black badges on Saturday and Sunday.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, however, has accused the members of the TMC delegation of creating an "unruly situation" at the airport. He said they were detained in view of intelligence inputs on the law and order situation received by the Assam government.
Maintaining that the MPs were extended all courtesies, the Union home minister said since there was no return flight to Kolkata or Delhi from Silchar, the MPs spent the night at the airport guest house and left for Kolkata this morning and had an onward flight to Delhi.
"With folded hands, the district magistrate requested them to return. But without paying heed to the request, the MPs got into shoving, in which two women security personnel were injured," he said.
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