BJP and its attempts to get support for a law it passed, without due democratic debate

CAA Image Courtesy: sentinelassam.com

The saying, “Desperate times call for desperate measures” applies aptly to the Central government right now. The ruling government is leaving no stone unturned to garner more and more support among the masses for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The party seems to have given out a diktat to its party members across the country to do all it takes to get support for the contentious law, this includes doing a door to door campaign informing people and giving them the ‘right information’ about the law claiming misinformation is being spread across various platforms of media, be it digital or print.

It is natural that people who are clueless about the law or know very little about it and are supporters of the BJP will believe the narrative being laid out by the “official source” which is the government itself and when the government comes to your doorstep to inform you about its law, there remains very less room for suspicion.

Here’s a look at all the desperate measures of the BJP government to garner support for its controversial law that drew criticism from citizens especially students across the country. it also invited criticism from international organizations like the United Nations as well as countries like United States of America as also few student’s organizations of universities like the Oxford University in United Kingdom.

West Bengal

The BJP launched a door to door campaign in TMC ruled Bengal on January 5 in support of the central government’s initiatives on citizenship in at least three districts of north Bengal, namely, Siliguri, Malda and Cooch Behar. The Telegraph reported that in the past one week, BJP’s state and central leaders, including Arvind Menon, Rahul Sinha and Mukul Roy, held closed-door meetings with district and block level functionaries of the party in north Bengal. In these meeting strategies are known to have formulated to counter the campaign by TMC and other parties against the CAA.

A BJP insider said, “It was decided that the BJP’s campaign would be carried out in a very sublime manner so that people could openly air their opinions. In Malda and Cooch Behar, people heard the leaders and received the pamphlets and booklets from them on Sunday. But we doubt how many of these people shared their opinions.”

Delhi

The impending elections in Delhi called for more rigorous and effective campaign and hence the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, himself knocked at the doors of some residents of south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, originally established to house Hindu and Sikh refugees from West Pakistan. The Telegraph reported that before beginning this campaign he addressed a meeting wherein he asked party cadres to raise the slogan of “Bharat Mata ki jai” so loudly that the “kaan ka parda (ear drums)” of those opposing the CAA “phat jaaye (gets ruptured)”.

What is important to note is that Shah chose a Hindu-Sikh locality for the campaign instead of a minority-dominated area where the actual “fear” exists. During this campaign residents were given pamphlets containing “myths” and “facts” about the CAA and asked them to give a missed call on a particular number to show their support for the amended law.

Jharkhand

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad organised a meeting at the ground in front of the Bodhi temple in Sakchi area of Jamshedpur which was attended by over 3,000 people, in support of CAA. VHP international vice-president Jagannath Sahi while challenging the protestors said, “I ask CAA protesters to pick up a copy of it and let us know if there is anything in it against the Muslims of this country.” He also said that the streets are not meant for only those who are against the law. On the same day, Union minister of tribal affairs Arjun Munda visited several places in Jugsalai to raise awareness about the CAA.

Missed calls to support CAA

The real desperation of BJP could be seen when Twitter saw many BJP supporting accounts posting the phone number, pretending to be a lonely, bored women asking people to call the number, even going to the lengths of claiming that calling on the number will activate free Netflix subscription of 6 months.

The BJP even roped in Jaggi Vasudev ‘Sadhguru’ to spread a positive message about CAA and to mainly reach out to the followers of Sadhguru and harbouring their support as well. His talk was even endorsed by the Prime Minister himself. The talk given by Sadhguru in support of the contentious law was criticised by many on social media for being misinformed on facts and history.

The widespread protests that have flared up since after the CAA became law seems to have taken the BJP by surprise. They, most definitely, did not expect such a deep rooted backlash from people from varied walks of life and such a long drawn protests that refuses to die down. Hence, the BJP has been compelled to come up with such campaigns to gain support for a law that it has already passed.