It was apprehended that the Supreme Court of India would pronounce the verdict in favour of 1971 as the cut-off year to detect and deport all illegal migrants from Assam, as the signatories of Asom Chukti endorsed the same, even though the larger indigenous population expected the judgement in support of the base year, applicable to the whole nation. Accordingly, the apex court on 17 October 2024 ruled in favour of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act 1955, bringing a great relief to All Assam Students’ Union (a signatory of the Assam Accord along with the now dismantled Asom Gana Sangram Parishad), Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad, Asom Gana Parishad, Asom Sahitya Sabha, as well as the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), not to speak of the Muslim minority-centric organisations and political parties.

The five-judge Constitution Bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justices Surya Kant, MM Sundresh, Manoj Misra, and JB Pardiwala upheld the validity of the said section with a 4:1 majority and thus recognised the accord, signed in 1985 to culminate the historic Asom Andolan started in 1979 to detect and deport all illegal migrants from the state. Even though the agitation was initiated with the demand for deporting the illegal migrants with the base year of 1951 and no less than 855 Assamese youths were martyred (also a full academic year was lost by a generation during the movement), the accord agreed to accept all migrants (read East Pakistani nationals) who entered Assam on or before 24 March 1971 as Indians, even though its adjacent north–eastern States have a different cut-off year (same with the national one) to identify the illegal foreigners.

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Asom Sammilita Mahasangh, which remained critical to everyone who supported a different cut-off year for Assam, putting the native population in grave danger, challenged the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act in the apex court and expressed complete dissatisfaction over the SC verdict. Now swimming against the tide, the umbrella organisation of a number of indigenous civil society groups has decided to appeal again before a nine-judge Constitution Bench. Recently, over 100 ethnic bodies came together to term the SC verdict as partisan and brutal to the original inhabitants of Assam. The indigenous leaders also authorised Matiur Rahman of Mahasangh to proceed with the resumed legal battle.

In a recent press meet, organised in Tinsukia of eastern Assam recently, the representatives from All Assam Ahom Sabha, Asom Moran Sabha, All Assam Matak Sanmilan, All Chutia Jati Sanmilan, All Kosh Rajbongshi Sanmilani, Matak Yuva Chatra Sanmilan, Sonowal Kachari Students’ Union, Moran Students’ Union, and other community leaders expressed frustration over the SC verdict and raised a straight question, if the central government and country’s highest court think Assam ‘a colony of India’ rather than a recognised state. Criticising the government for its irresponsible approach to resolving the appalling issue, the representatives asserted that Assam cannot take the burden of foreigners who came after 19 July 1948.

They also unanimously appreciated Justice Pardiwala for his dissenting judgement holding Section 6A of the Citizenship Act as unconstitutional (acknowledging the magnitude of illegal migrants’ menace in Assam). It was reflected in his opinion that different cut-off dates were arbitrary and lacked a rational link in initiatives to protect the state’s demographic balance. The unequal treatment can be termed discriminatory against the indigenous people (comprising various communities like Ahom, Moran, Matak, Chutia, Sonowal Kachari, Tiwa, Deori, Kosh Rajbongshi, etc.), which may derive their due political rights.

Though the national BJP leadership expressed satisfaction over the verdict, many local saffron leaders came out with their views as ‘unfortunate’. Even Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma did not prefer to term the SC verdict as historic, and the outspoken politician admitted that a large number of Assamese people wanted 1951 to be the base year to detect the illegal foreigners in Assam too. Meanwhile, urging President Droupadi Murmu for her personal intervention over the matter to address the growing concern of Asomiya people, a senior journalist has sent a letter terming the SC verdict as discriminatory in nature.

Guwahati-based nationalist media person Biswajit Nath put three pertinent questions through the letter dated 24th October- How Assam can have a different cut-off year from the national one, why the state has been compelled to take the burden of millions of illegal migrants alone, and when the indigenous people of northeast India can expect a concrete initiative from the central government to shift a large volume of those foreigners (now recognised as Indians) to other parts of the country.

Earlier, the Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA), while accepting the SC verdict with trepidation, did not rule out the possibility of its revision under existing laws of the land. The forum of nationalist citizens argued that a dissenting judgement (by Justice Pardiwala) may provide lawful space to go for a revision, as the majority of Asomiyas felt disheartened by the verdict. It also appealed to the BJP leadership to rethink the stand in favour of illegal migrants, putting the Assamese community in an increasingly troubled ambience. With the simple logic of allotting a different cutoff year to Assam (to detect the illegal migrants), the PPFA apprehended that the anti-Bharat elements may find an opportunity to regain their space in the disturbed region.

The forum acknowledged that the deportation of illegal migrants becomes too difficult now-a-days because of various international complications, but that must not be an official stand. The BJP-led government in New Delhi may also think of shifting a sizable portion of those East Pakistanis to other parts of the country after their due detection. The initiative, though seems to be tricky at first glance, should be adopted meticulously with the support from all Assam-centric organisations so that the future of Assamese people in their own land would not dwindle because of massive demographic changes taking place in the state, it asserted.

The writer is a Guwahati-based special representative of The Statesman