The anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019 protestors in Assam demand that anyone, who came to Assam after March 24, 1971, must leave the state, as per the provisions of Assam Accord.

However, a top government official on Friday claimed that anyone born in India before 1987 or whose parents were born before 1987 are bonafide Indian citizens according to law and they need not worry due to the CAA or a possible countrywide NRC.

The Assam Accord was signed in 1985 following the Assam Agitation during which 855 people sacrificed their lives.

According to the Assam Accord, March 24, 1971, is the cut-off date for identification, detection, and deportation of illegal immigrants.

Also read: Lawyers protest against CAA in Assam

But as per the CAA, 2019, the persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who migrated to India from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh till December 31, 2014, would be granted citizenship.

According to the 2004 amendments of the Citizenship Act, people of the country, barring those in Assam, whose one parent is an Indian and neither is an illegal immigrant are also considered Indian citizens, the official said.

The top government official has made the clarification amid the protests against the CAA and misconceptions being circulated in the social media about the newly-enacted citizenship law.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), 2019 became an Act after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bill on December 12.

However, the anti-CAA protests, which started in Assam, have engulfed the country.

The anti-CAA protests have also echoed in the United Kingdom and America with several Indian students and NRIs coming out to the streets to raise voice against it.

A media report quoted the official as saying: “Those who are born in India before 1987 or whose parents were born in the country before that year are considered Indians under naturalisation as per the law.”