The Congress in Assam on Thursday called out the “doublespeak” of the BJP on the issue of ghuspetiyas (infiltrators) amid a joint protest by the Opposition parties against the recently notified Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025.
The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which spearheaded the six-year-long Assam Movement against foreigners illegally staying in the state, also staged a statewide 11-hour protest against the exemption order as well as the eviction of illegal Bangladeshis, irrespective of religion.
The Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025, allows exemption to people from several countries who entered India till December 2024 without valid travel documents or whose documents have expired, triggering both concern and outrage over the Centre’s move which is perceived as a “threat to Assam, the Assamese, its culture and language”.
Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Debabrata Saikia and former Assam Congress president Ripun Bora questioned the motive of the order in backdrop of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s Independence Day speeches where they flagged the threat posed by infiltrators and efforts to curb infiltration.
“The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) will talk tough about ghuspetiyas and how they are a threat to our livelihood and land and how there is a ‘deliberate conspiracy’ to alter the demography of the country. And the same government has passed the immigration exemption in favour of ghuspetiyas (infiltrators),” Saikia said, while referring to Modi’s Independence Day speech.
Saikia claimed: “The exemption order is a threat to Assam. It is an updated version of the contentious CAA. In CAA, those who entered without papers were eligible for citizenship if they had entered India by December 2014. Under the immigration (exemption) order, this cut-off has been extended to December 2024. Assam is not a dumping ground.”
“The order goes against the 1985 Assam accord, under which the cut-off date for citizenship is March 24, 1971. The order should be immediately revoked,” the Congress Legislature Party leader added.
“The new Immigration and Foreigners’ (Exemption) Order, 2025, issued on September 1, is BJP’s deep-rooted conspiracy to destroy the very existence of the Assamese people by nullifying the Assam Accord in order to legalise foreigners and turning the state into a grazing ground for outsiders, Saikia and Bora said at a joint news conference here.
Attacking the Centre, Bora said: “They talk about detecting and throwing out ghuspetiyas and now they have passed an order which facilitates/encourages the entry of ghuspetiyas. This has to be withdrawn. They claim they are a persecuted lot. Where is the guarantee that this order will not be extended further? Because persecution will continue. This will become an endless business.”
AJP president Lurinjyoti Gogoi and Congress’ Seva Dal president Deep Bayan, among others, joined the protest. Claiming that this order a “threat”, the Opposition parties called for everyone to unite in this fight to save the future of Assam.
AASU president Utpal Sarma said that the order shows that the Centre is “more concerned” about infiltrators than the future of the indigenous Assamese people.
BJP, ally face exodus
The season of exodus in poll-bound Assam has begun with the resignation of three former MLAs associated with the ruling alliance.
Two BJP leaders, Mansing Rongpi and Binanda Saikia, and AGP leader Satyabrata Kalita have resigned from their respective parties on Wednesday.
Additional reporting by PTI
