K'taka BJP to unleash pro-CAA campaign to counter protests

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will unleash a pro-Citizenship Amendment Act campaign across Karnataka from January 1-15 to counter the protests against it by a section of people supported by opposition parties like the Congress, a BJP official said on Saturday.

"A pro-CAA awareness campaign will be conducted across the southern state from January 1-15 peacefully to counter the protests launched against it by students and other people at the behest of the Congress and Left parties," BJP's state unit general secretary N. Ravikumar said at Hubballi, about 400 kms northwest of Bengaluru.

Besides contacting the people directly at their doorstep through the party's cadres and supporters, Ravikumar said the party would reach out to all sections of society through social media and by holding pro-CAA rallies in all 30 district headquarters across the state during the next fortnight.

"Our cadres and supporters are being briefed and trained at about 300 local units in cities and towns across the state to explain the salient features of the CAA to the people and clarify their doubts as the protesters were misleading them with wrong information about it," asserted Ravikumar.

The CAA came into being after Parliament passed its amendment bill on December 11 and the President enacted it into law to give citizenship rights to Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists and Jains who have been persecuted as minorities in Muslim-majority Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan over the last seven decades.

"A deliberate misinformation campaign has been carried out against the CAA by vested interests, misguiding a section of college/university students, their faculty, activists and members of the minority community on its provisions so as to create unrest and trigger violence in the country," Ravikumar claimed.

The ruling party will also hold mega rallies and public meetings in major cities like Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi, Belagavi, Bellary and Kalaburagi across the state and enlighten the people on the benefits of the CAA.

"As social media is all-pervasive with greater reach and better impact, we will reach out to about 1 crore people of all ages through Kannada, Hindi and English script, messages and audio/video clips across the state during the fortnight-long campaign," added Ravikumar.IANS