Congress spokesperson and AICC media chairman Pawan Khera, while appearing on a discussion by Aaj Tak – Panchayat Assam, ahead of the state’s assembly elections, said that illegal residents must be removed regardless of religion, stating: “Any infiltrator, whether Hindu or Muslim, if living illegally, that is wrong, whether Hindu or Muslim.”
He added that a Congress government in Assam would take all decisions “on the basis of the 1985 Accord”.
“We will drive out Hindu infiltrators when the Congress govt is formed in Assam”
Pawan Khera has revealed the Muslim Maowadi Congress’s plan to throw Hindus from their own country while settling Miyas in every district. pic.twitter.com/3MZaSMzHNt
— BALA (@erbmjha) March 12, 2026
The 1985 Accord Vs. The 2019 Law
When pressed by the anchor on whether Congress would remove infiltrators if it came to power, Khera replied: “We take all decisions on the basis of the 1985 Accord”.
The Assam Accord sets a cut-off of 24 March 1971 – any illegal immigrant arriving after that date is subject to detection. Khera’s insistence on governing by the 1971 cut-off, while making no acknowledgement of CAA, means a Congress government in Assam would apply the same deportation standard to Hindu refugees that Parliament has already granted statutory protection. The CAA’s cut-off, moreover, was extended to 31 December 2024 by the MHA in September 2025 specifically to protect Hindus who fled the anti-minority violence that followed Sheikh Hasina’s fall in Bangladesh.
In October 2024, the Supreme Court (4:1 majority) upheld Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, the legal embodiment of the Assam Accord, reinforcing the 1971 cut-off as Assam’s special citizenship framework.
Assam Accord vs CAA
When asked about deporting infiltrators, Pawan Khera said a Congress government in Assam would take decisions “on the basis of the 1985 Assam Accord,” which sets 24 March 1971 as the cut-off for detecting illegal migrants.
However, Parliament later created a statutory exception through the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) for persecuted minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. In September 2025, the Union Home Ministry extended the eligibility window to migrants who entered India up to 31 December 2024.
Khera’s reliance solely on the 1971 Accord framework, without acknowledging the CAA, raises a basic question: would a Congress government treat Hindu refugees fleeing persecution the same as illegal economic migrants, despite Parliament having created a legal distinction between the two?
What the Law Distinguishes, Khera Does Not
Khera’s framing collapses a crucial legal distinction: a Bangladeshi Hindu fleeing religious persecution is not considered an infiltrator and is protected under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) with eligibility for Indian citizenship, whereas a Bangladeshi Muslim entering India as an illegal economic migrant is classified as an infiltrator and is subject to detection and deportation.
By treating both identically, Khera is either arguing that Parliament’s CAA should not apply in Assam, or that the religious persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh does not warrant a different legal treatment from economic illegal migration. Neither is a position the law supports.
The Appeasement Calculus
When Khera insists on the 1985 Accord as the sole governing framework, he is, knowingly or not, arguing that Bangladeshi Hindu refugees should receive no more protection than Muslim illegal migrants. He is arguing that Parliament’s CAA, passed with a constitutional majority, should not apply. He is arguing that the religious persecution that drove Hindus out of Bangladesh is legally irrelevant.
And he is doing all of this while carefully never saying the words “Muslim infiltrator” because that would cost Congress votes. Instead, he symmetrises: “Hindu or Muslim, same standard.” It sounds fair. It is actually a political manoeuvre that uses the language of equality to deny protection to a persecuted minority – one that Indian law has already recognised.
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