Prime Minister Narendra Modi is inviting the public to express support for the Citizenship Amendment Act with a new hashtag, as protests against the controversial law continue
Narendra Modi
© PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched an outreach campaign with the hashtag #IndiaSupportsCAA to gather support for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which has sparked furious, sometimes deadly protests across India in recent weeks.

PM Modi's official website tweeted that the CAA "is about giving citizenship to persecuted refugees and not about taking anyone's citizenship away".

At around the same time, PM Modi tweeted a video featuring spiritual leader Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, who he said had provided a "lucid explanation of aspects relating to CAA" and "calls out the misinformation by vested interest groups".

Take a look.


The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) fast-tracks naturalisation for Pakistani, Afghan and Bangladeshi illegal immigrants from six non-Muslim minority groups who fled religious persecution in their home countries, and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.

Protesters opposing the CAA fear it will shield non-Muslim illegal migrants identified by a pan-India NRC (the government now says there have been no talks on a countrywide citizens register) and make a large number of Muslims stateless.

Dozens have been killed during the anti-CAA protests, many of them in Uttar Pradesh. By contrast, only two deaths have been reported in connection with the pro-democracy agitation in Hong Kong, which has been underway for several months.

BJP leaders have said the government didn't anticipate the anti-CAA protests, which began around the time when the law was being debated in Parliament.


Comment:



The agitation intensified into a nationwide stir soon after the Delhi Police were accused of using excessive force against students at Jamia Millia Islamia.