By Riyaz ul Khaliq
ANKARA (AA) – To counter the growing anti-government protests, the campaign team of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday launched a social media campaign to boost support for the new citizenship law.
The twitter handle of Narendra Modi website wrote early today tweeted: “#IndiaSupportsCAA because CAA is about giving citizenship to persecuted refugees & not about taking anyone’s citizenship away.”
India’s new citizenship law — officially known as Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) — brought by Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government earlier this month has triggered mass condemnation and protests during which over 20 people have lost their lives.
The law will grant citizenship to at least six minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who migrated to India until Dec. 31, 2014. Muslims are not included in the list.
The social media campaign handle of Modi asked his social media followers to boost the Twitter hashtag to shore up support for the new law.
“Check out this hashtag in Your Voice section of Volunteer module on NaMo [Narendra Modi] App for content, graphics, videos & more. Share & show your support for CAA,” the tweet added.
Mass violence and human rights abuses have been reported from several parts of India during the anti-government protests over the new law.
