BJP Assam accuses opposition of misleading public on Centre’s immigrant directive

The Assam unit of the BJP on Friday accused opposition parties of deliberately misleading the people over the Centre’s recent directive on immigrant foreigners, insisting that it was not an extension of the eligibility deadline for Indian citizenship.

Addressing the media, BJP state spokesperson Devajit Mahanta said that the directive, issued under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, was being “manipulated” by the Congress, Raijor Dal, and Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) to gain political mileage ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.

The notification allows Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2024, to legally reside in the country without valid travel documents if they fled religious persecution. Mahanta clarified that this order does not change the cut-off date of December 31, 2014, set under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) for eligibility to apply for Indian citizenship.

“The Congress and opposition parties, as usual, are trying to incite agitation. If they attempt to disturb the peace in the state in the name of opposing this directive, people will hold them accountable,” Mahanta warned.

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He argued that the anti-CAA movement in Assam had only benefited a few politically and cited the example of the AJP, which emerged from the protests but later allied with the Congress. “Against the exaggerated claim of crores entering Assam, only 12 people applied for citizenship under CAA in the state, of whom just three have received it,” Mahanta pointed out.

The BJP spokesperson further recalled how former Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in April 2012, urging citizenship for Hindus fleeing religious persecution in Bangladesh, to underline what he termed as the opposition’s “hypocrisy.”

Meanwhile, opposition parties and civil society groups have strongly criticised the Centre’s directive. The Congress claimed that it would turn Assam into a “grazing ground for foreigners” and accused the BJP of conspiring to nullify the Assam Accord to legalise foreigners. The AJP alleged that the move was aimed at securing Hindu Bangladeshi votes, calling it the “biggest crime ever” against the Assamese people.

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which spearheaded the Assam Agitation, also rejected the order and reiterated its demand for complete withdrawal of the CAA from the state.