The Congress will be lodging a complaint with the cyber crime police here against the misleading dial-in campaign for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
After the BJP’s national leadership invited missed calls to a toll-free number from the general public to gain support for the issue, the saffron party’s IT cell allegedly began a misleading campaign to lure people, claimed Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) spokesperson M. Lakshmana.
At a press conference here on Monday, he alleged that the BJP’s IT cell had created about 3,000 such misleading tweets with offers ranging from chats with “lonely women” to free Netflix subscription to a chat with Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt to the people calling the toll-free number.
Though a complaint has been lodged by All India Congress Committee (AICC) at the national level, Mr. Lakshmana said the party’s Mysuru unit will also lodge a complaint.
He also described as a “bundle of lies” a pamphlet distributed by the BJP leaders as part of the campaign in favour of CAA. “They have conveniently ignored the chaos CAA will cause in the society when implemented along with National Register of Citizens (NRC)”, he said before adding that the Congress will also soon launch a campaign to create awareness among the people about the actual impact of the legislations on the society.
Varuna Assembly constituency MLA Yathindra Siddaramaiah cited the difficulties faced by people in Assam, who had been left out of the NRC list, as an example of the threat posed to people in the rest of the country. “Both Muslims and Hindus had been left out of the NRC list in Assam recently”, he said. Also, CAA provides citizenship only to minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. “Why has the government left out the migrants from Sri Lanka?’, Mr Yathindra asked.
The laws will put into jeopardy the lives of not only Muslims, but also a large number of poor, Dalits and tribals in the country, he added.
KPCC spokesperson Manjula Manasa, who was present on the occasion, accused the BJP leaders and supporters of painting as “anti-nationals” the people who question the government’s actions. She also accused the BJP of sowing the seeds of communal poison in the minds of the people through people like Ballari MLA Somashekar Reddy while strongly condemning his utterances in Ballari recently.
