The All Assam Students' Union (AASU), one of the signatories of the Assam Accord of 1985, and all opposition political parties on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court judgement regarding the pact's cut-off date and said it re-established the "rationality" of the historic agreement.
AASU and others described the judgment as "historic" and appealed to the government to implement the Accord, while the original petitioner Assam Sanmilita Mahasangha (ASM) termed the ruling as "unfortunate", saying it will make the state a "dumping ground" for foreigners.
The ruling BJP, on the other hand, expressed a word of caution and said the government would now think how to safeguard the interest of the indigenous people of Assam.
In a majority verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the constitutional validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act which grants Indian citizenship to immigrants who came to Assam between January 1, 1966 and March 25, 1971. A five-judge Constitution Bench, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, said the Assam Accord was a political solution to the problem of illegal migration.
The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 after a six-year-long violent anti-foreigner movement. The pact stated, among other clauses, that names of all foreigners coming to Assam on or after March 25, 1971, would be detected and deleted from electoral rolls with steps taken to deport them. Section 6A was inserted into the Citizenship Act in 1985 as a special provision to deal with the citizenship of people covered under the Accord.
AASU welcomed the verdict and said it is the victory of the struggling people of Assam who have stood selflessly in favour of the Assam Accord for the past four decades.
"This verdict re-established the rationality of the Assam movement and the Assam Accord. We pay tributes to the martyrs on this historic occasion. We demand again that every clause of the Assam Accord be fully implemented," AASU said in a statement.
"We wholeheartedly welcome the historic Supreme Court verdict. It has established that the Assam agitation was undertaken with genuine reasons. All provisions of the Assam Accord are now legally validated by the apex court," AASU chief adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharjya told PTI in Delhi.
Matiur Rahman, who filed the original petition in the SC on behalf of ASM, said he was not expecting such a verdict. The Assam-based organisation wanted 1951 and not 1971, which is the year fixed in the Assam Accord, as the cut-off year for the detection and deportation of all illegal immigrants in Assam.
"We wanted the rights of the indigenous people of Assam to be fully protected and hence, we have been seeking 1951 as the cut-off date for deportation of all illegal immigrants from Assam.
"The Supreme Court verdict will jeopardise the rights of Assam's indigenous people. You can't make Assam a dumping ground for illegal immigrants," he told PTI over the phone.
Rahman said his organisation will carefully examine the judgment and see whether it can be challenged in a bigger Constitutional Bench.
All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) president Rejaul Karim Sarkar said some vested interests wanted to bring back days of violence by demanding 1951 as a base year for citizenship "but the SC gave a historical judgement for the future of Assam".
Assam minister Jayanta Malla Baruah said while all have to abide by the SC verdict, everyone is concerned for the indigenous people of Assam and their interests.
"...because the state will now have to take a burden of foreigners for an additional 20 years compared to the rest of the country. Still, we have to think about how to safeguard the interest of the indigenous people," he added.
Opposition Congress hailed the verdict as a reminder of all stakeholders' responsibilities, and said the party has always respected the Assam Accord, signed by then PM Rajiv Gandhi.
"The BJP of that time also had welcomed it, but nowadays CM Himanta Biswa Sarma tries to create a restless and disturbing atmosphere on the basis of this historic pact. He is playing dirty politics and one of the few tricks by him is implementation of the CAA," Assam Congress president Bhupen Kumar Borah said.
Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia said it was a historic day for all that the verdict legitimised the Assam Accord.
AIUDF organisational general secretary and MLA Aminul Islam welcomed the judgement and said the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was done on the basis of this date after spending Rs 1,600 crore and it excluded 19 lakh people.
"The verdict in a way also legitimised the NRC. The government must work accordingly," he added.
Raijor Dal chief and MLA Akhil Gogoi said there should not be any further debate over the cut-off date after this judgement and government must take responsibility to deport all foreigners, including Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs or of any other religion.
Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) president Lurinjyoti Gogoi thanked the apex court for the verdict and said the presence of illegal immigration posed a grave threat to Assam's identity and existence.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, who hails from Assam, said in a post on X: "Hope the Assam government & @CMOfficeAssam stops meddling with this cut-off date through the back door by distorting the accord only for votes." In a video post shared on X later, she alleged that the BJP government in Assam was consistently trying to shift the date from 1971 to 1951, which applies to the rest of the country. PTI TR ACB ACD
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