Assam Accord: The Back Story

NEW DELHI: August 15, 1985—a red-letter day for Assam. It marked the culmination of a six-year movement that aimed at flushing out illegal immigrants or ‘foreigners’. The movement was spearheaded by student activists but was backed by almost everyone—women, social bodies, even schoolchildren. It led to the signing of the Assam Accord. That ushered in a new era of regional political parties, not just in Assam but elsewhere in the North East. In this episode of ‘Simply Nitin’, StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale, who was then in Guwahati, working as a journalist, details how it all happened.