Cooch Behar: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Sunday staged a protest at the Assam Gate along the Assam-Bengal border in Tufanganj, condemning alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people through NRC notices issued by the Assam government.
The protest was organised by the Cooch Behar district Trinamool Congress as part of a broader “language and identity movement”. TMC workers set fire to an effigy of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as a symbolic protest. Security was heightened, with both Bengal and Assam police deployed at the border. “This is a message to the Assam CM—we reject his behavior toward the people of Bengal,” said Abhijit De Bhowmik. MP Basunia urged local authorities to reject any NRC notices from Assam, while echoing similar sentiments, minister Udayan Guha declared: “Any village receiving such a notice must declare the local BJP workers as infiltrators and ensure that the area becomes BJP-free.”
Among those present were NRC notice recipients Uttam Kumar Brijwasi, Nishikant Das and Aarti Ghosh. Key TMC leaders, including district president Abhijit De Bhowmik, minister Udayan Guha, MP Jagdish Chandra Verma Basunia, MLA Paresh Chandra Adhikari, Rabindra Nath Ghosh and Partha Pratim Ray, joined the demonstration.