Oppn trying to 'manipulate' people on Centre's new order on foreigners: Assam BJP

Guwahati, Sep 5 (PTI) The Assam unit of the BJP on Friday claimed that the opposition parties in the state were trying to "manipulate" the public over the Centre's recent directive on immigrant foreigners, maintaining that it was not an extension in the deadline for eligibility to apply for Indian citizenship.

The ruling party alleged that it was a ploy of the Opposition to use the order as an attempt to gain support ahead of next year's assembly elections.

The Centre's order, issued under the recently implemented Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, allows Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2024, to stay in the country without valid travel documents, if they fled religious persecution.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which had witnessed massive, violent protests in the state and came into effect last year, makes similar groups who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014, eligible for Indian citizenship.

"The Congress and opposition parties, as usual, in order to tide over the 2026 assembly elections, are trying to deliberately manipulate the directive," state BJP spokesperson Devajit Mahanta said at a press conference here.

He maintained that if the Congress, Raijor Dal or Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) try to encourage agitation in the name of opposition to the new directives and vitiate the peaceful atmosphere, the people of the state will hold them accountable.

Mahanta questioned the outcome of the anti-CAA movement for the masses and maintained that it was to benefit a few.

He cited the example of AJP -- which was formed after the anti-CAA stir and went on to ally with the Congress, the party which was in power when 855 people were killed during the six-year-long Assam Agitation -- to buttress his claim.

On the Opposition's claim that a large number of illegal Bangladeshis will get citizenship once CAA is implemented, the BJP spokesperson said, "Against their exaggerated claim of crores entering our state, only 12 people applied for citizenship under CAA in Assam and three of them have received it." "It proves that the anti-CAA agitation was merely a political stepping stone for some individuals," he claimed.

Mahanta also mentioned how the then CM Tarun Gogoi of the Congress had written to the then PM Manmohan Singh on April 20, 2012, requesting that if Hindus were facing religious persecution in Bangladesh and seeking refuge in India, they should be treated as refugees and granted citizenship.

He maintained that the new notification has not extended the deadline to be eligible to apply for citizenship from the earlier cut-off date of December 31, 2014.

It only permits, by government recognition, people of the six religions from the three neigbouring countries to reside in India. This will have no negative impact on the demography of the state, Mahanta claimed.

Criticising the new order, Congress had said that it would turn the state into a "grazing ground for foreigners" and termed it the BJP's "deep-rooted conspiracy to destroy the very existence of the Assamese people by nullifying the Assam Accord in order to legalise foreigners".

The AJP has accused the BJP of endangering the very existence of the Assamese people for the sake of Hindu Bangladeshi votes, and called it the "biggest crime ever committed" against the Assamese people.

The All Assam Students' Union (AASU), which was at the forefront of the Assam Agitation, has also protested the Centre's recent order, and reiterated its demand that the CAA be withdrawn from the state. PTI SSG SSG ACD