Identifying the ‘Outsider’ applicable to Assam alone. 19 Over the years, some steps were taken by the Central Government to identify and expel ‘foreigners’, but the numbers of ‘outsiders’ identified could not pacify the sentiments of the Assamese groups who wanted their territory purged of Bengali speaking persons, and especially Bengali speaking Muslims who were accused of migrating from East Pakistan to Assam. 20 In 1971, Bangladesh won its freedom from Pakistan, which was persecuting the residents of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) on linguistic lines. This also resulted in Bengali speakers migrating to India, particularly the culturally similar provinces of Assam and West Bengal. 21 Between 1979 and 1985, there was a massive movement led by students of Assam to protect Assamese culture. 22 The movement gained popular support when it was projected that the change in the voting population of Assam as compared to the previous decade was disproportionate, and could affect the election outcome. 23 The protests ended with the inking of the Assam Accord between the government of India, the government of Assam and the All Assam Students Union and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad — bodies that were representing the protestors. 24 The Assam Accord of 1985 obliged the government of India to identify who arrived in India after 24 March 1971 and expel them from India as ‘foreigners’ after disenfranchising them. 25 Those who were found to have arrived between 1 January 1966 and 24 March 1971 were to be disenfranchised for a period of 10 years from the date of their detection, but were not to be rendered stateless. 26 The government also undertook to examine the dissatisfaction of the people of Assam with the manner and the pace at which the process of identification of foreigners was taking place in Assam. It was thus agreed that any person who was residing in Assam prior to 24 March 1971 would be regarded as an Indian citizen, and thus, the general rules that apply to the rest of India would not apply to Assam. Subsequently, in order to ensure that a non-citizen does not vote, the Election Commission of India took upon itself the task of ‘doubting’ the citizenship of Assamese residents, which resulted in the exclusion of lakhs of voters, mostly women, as they were marked as ‘D Voter’. 27 In 1983, the government of India had enacted the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983, which was 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950 (n 14) s 2; Foreigners Act, 1946 (n 10) s 3. Vani K Borooah, ‘The Killing Fields of Assam: Myth and Reality of Its Muslim Immigration’ 48(4) Economic and Political Weekly, 43, 43–44. See generally Rounaq Jahan, ‘Genocide in Bangladesh’ in Samuel Totten and William S Parsons (eds), Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts (Routledge 2013) 249. Sanjib Baruah, ‘Immigration, Ethnic Conflict, and Political Turmoil — Assam, 1979–1985’ (1986) 26(11) Asian Survey 1184. ibid 1191–92. ‘Assam Accord’ (1985) 20(33) Economic and Political Weekly 1369, 1369–70, discussing Accord between AASU, AAGSP and the Central Government on the Foreign National Issue (Assam Accord), signed 15 August 1985 (Memorandum of Settlement) <https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IN_850815_Assam%20Accord.pd f> (‘Assam Accord’). Assam Accord (n 24) art 5.8. ibid arts 5.2–5.6. A ‘lakh’ is a unit of 100,000 in the Indian numbering system. Nazimuddin Siddique, ‘Discourse of Doubt’ (2019) 54(10) Economic & Political Weekly 25. 116