The TMC delegation -- six MPs, one MLA and one West Bengal minister -- who had gone to Silchar in Assam have returned to Kolkata.


The delegation had gone to Silchar to interact with people left out of the draft of the National Register of Citizens published on July 30.


The NRC draft, touted to be a proof of Assamese citizenship, had excluded over 40 lakh people, triggering a political slugfest between the BJP and other political parties.


After arriving in Kolkata, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said, "The way infiltrators are treated... they are pushed back... we were treated the same way... we were pushed back. We were manhandled, even women MPs were not spared.


"How can six MPs, a minister and an MLA create trouble in a state?" he asked while talking to reporters.


The prohibitory order document stated that action would be taken against those found to be carrying firearms and explosives, Roy said, and asked whether they had been carrying such items.


Before leaving Silchar, he had said, "We are going back. The police have not allowed us to go out. We requested them several times but they refused. We spent the night in three rooms at the airport."


"The way the MPs and a state minister (Firhad Hakim) were harassed shows that democracy is under threat," another member of the delegation Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar alleged. "We wonder whether rule of law exits in the country. It appears that an undeclared emergency is on," she said.


After the TMC leaders had landed at Silchar airport yesterday, the authorities stopped them and took them under preventive detention, saying their visit might create trouble. -- PTI