AASU launches hunger strike across Assam against immigration order, cites threat to indigenous identity

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) staged a statewide 11-hour hunger strike on Thursday, intensifying its opposition to the Centre’s new immigration order, which the student body claims is altering Assam’s demographic balance and undermining the indigenous identity of the state.

The protest began at 6 am and was observed simultaneously in all district headquarters, with the main demonstration held at Dighalipukhuri in Guwahati.

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Hundreds of students and supporters joined the strike, holding placards that demanded the eviction of illegal immigrants “irrespective of religion” and the urgent implementation of the 1985 Assam Accord.

AASU’s central demand has remained consistent: Assam must be exempted from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and from the newly introduced Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which they argue is unsuited to the state’s sensitive border dynamics.

“Our stand is clear — Assam cannot bear the burden of foreigners, whether Hindu or Muslim,” AASU leader Utpal Sharma told the gathering.

“The government is trying to use numerical superiority to suppress the indigenous people. Borders must be sealed, and all foreigners must leave Assam.”

The organisation also criticised what it called a “discriminatory approach” by the Centre, noting that while four northeastern states and eight districts of Assam are exempted from certain immigration laws, the rest of the state continues to absorb demographic pressures.

The strike carried strong symbolic undertones, with leaders recalling the sacrifices made during the anti-CAA agitation of 2019–20, when five youths were killed in police firing.

“The Chief Minister now calls them martyrs. Were they killed so that citizenship could be granted to foreign nationals?” Sharma asked, adding that AASU’s struggle would continue despite repeated rounds of talks with successive governments.

The protest comes at a time of renewed debate over immigration policies in the Northeast. Since the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 — which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for detection and deportation of foreigners — the question of illegal immigration has remained one of the state’s most contentious political and social issues. AASU, the driving force behind the Assam Movement of 1979–85, continues to see itself as the guardian of Assamese identity.