Bengaluru: Under criticism for how its 'missed call campaign' is being wrongly used to lure people to support the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) MP Sadananda Gowda defended the move stating that social media was a space where everyone could enter.
When asked whether action would be taken against Twitter users who were misinforming public about the toll-free number, Gowda blamed the opposition for creating the confusion.
"Many people who have no other job are doing such things, they will simply pass messages which are adverse in the larger interesta of society. These people want to create mischief, just like the people on the streets who know well that CAA is the need of the hour", he said.
On Saturday, Twitter was abuzz with tweets of Netflix promising a free subscription if they gave a missed call on the same number. Accounts pretending to be bored, lonely women also shared the number, asking people to call on it.
The four-time MP said that there were people like Sadhguru who were endorsing the Act so the party didn't need to indulge in such a strategy to garner support.
"We are going door-to-door, speaking with intellectuals, so when people hear from them they will understand the Act,” Gowda said. He reiterated home minister Amit Shah’s stance that government 'won't move back an inch on CAA even if all parties unite against them'.
Critics have also pointed out how the exercise of giving missed calls was being undertaken to collect a database of phone numbers to be used for future social media engagements. Gowda rubbished these claims, stating that an issue of such national importance had to be countered in such a manner.
"Our party membership campaign was led by a missed call drive, similarly when an issue of national importance needs to be countered we have to reach out to the people. 100% assurance that this data will not be misused,” he said.
The Union Minister also assured that his government would make public the data showing number of people who endorsed the #SupportCAA campaign, but at an appropriate time.
“So many people are being misled by political parties, so we will come out with that data later,” he said.
Noting that vulgar claims are also being made, such as people can speak to lonely girls by dialling this number, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra also said the exercise should not be reduced to ridicule.
"Opposition leaders are doing politics over such a positive step," Patra said, adding that the BJP has worked to fix a decades-old issue like citizenship for persecuted minorities from neighbouring countries by enacting the CAA.
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