Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday flagged the threat Assam faced from illegal immigration at two back-to-back rallies in the state, warning those “out to save the infiltrators” that the country would “never forgive them”.

“It’s the goal of the BJP to save the country from ghuspetiyas (infiltrators). Free the country from ghuspetiyas,” Modi said at his first rally of the day at Mangaldoi, Darrang.

Modi is the second central BJP leader after Union home minister Amit Shah to have flagged illegal immigration, an emotive issue in Assam, which witnessed a six-year anti-foreigner movement.

The agitation ended with the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 for the detection and deportation of illegal migrants, with March 24, 1971, as the cutoff date. Assam, however, continues to witness regular protests seeking implementation of key clauses of the accord.

Political observers said the central leaders’ repeated references to illegal influx suggested that it would be a key plank for the BJP in next year’s Assam elections. A BJP-led alliance has been in power in the state since 2016.

At Mangaldoi, where he inaugurated or laid the foundation stone for development projects worth around ₹6,500 crore, Modi accused the Opposition of having become a “major protector of anti-national elements and infiltrators”.

“I also want to tell those rajnetas (political leaders) that the efforts you put in to save the infiltrators… we will put our lives on the line to remove the infiltrators,” Modi said.

“Those out to save the infiltrators will have to pay the price. Listen to what I have to say: This country will never forgive them.”

Modi claimed the Opposition had encouraged infiltration when in power, and now sought to “permanently” settle infiltrators in India.

He recalled that Mangaldoi “once witnessed a major movement to protect Assam’s identity and resist illegal infiltration”.

Alluding to the Congress, he asserted that the previous government had punished people “for this resistance” and retaliated by “enabling” encroachment on religious places and land belonging to farmers and tribal communities.

These conditions are now being reversed, he said.

Echoing Shah, Modi said that under the leadership of chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, “lakhs of bighas of land have been freed from infiltrators in Assam, including significant recoveries in Darrang district”.

He, however, warned about “ongoing conspiracies to alter the demographic composition of border regions through infiltration”, and described it as a grave threat to national security.

As a remedy, he announced the launch of a nationwide Demography Mission (pledged earlier in his Independence Day speech).

At his second rally, in Numaligarh, Golaghat, where he inaugurated the Assam Bioethanol Plant and laid the foundation stone for a polypropylene plant at Numaligarh Refinery Limited, Modi again stressed his government’s resolve to check infiltration.

He again accused the previous rulers of “allotting land” to infiltrators and protecting “illegal encroachments”.

He alleged that in the pursuit of vote-bank politics, the Opposition had “disrupted” Assam’s demographic balance, an issue he said his government was addressing “in collaboration” with the people of Assam.

As in Mangaldoi, he cited how the government was reclaiming land from illegal immigrants and allocating land pattas to tribal families. He praised the Assam government for its Mission Basundhara, under which lakhs of families had received land pattas.

Cong media meet

The Congress will hold a news conference on Monday to respond to Modi’s allegations.

A few days ago, the leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, Debabrata Saikia, and former state Congress president Ripun Bora had questioned the Centre’s intention of notifying the Immigration and Foreigners (Exemption) Order, 2025.

This order exempts from action sections of immigrants from several countries who entered India till December 2024 without valid travel documents, or whose documents have expired.

“The Prime Minister 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,” Saikia had said on September 4.

“And the same government has passed the Immigration exemption in favour of ghuspetiyas, diluting the Assam Accord where the cutoff date was March 24, 1971.”