Senior cabinet ministers and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders would be deployed across the country in an effort to dispel misgivings about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, and National Register of Citizens (NRC) being allegedly spread by the opposition, party sources said on Thursday.
All these senior leaders, who met at BJP headquarters earlier today, would be contacting eminent personalities of their respective fields and common people to spread awareness regarding the CAA, sources said.
Among the senior leaders that will be deployed by the party till January 15 are Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju to name a few.
Many of these like Thakur and Rijiju have been tasked to reach out to the icons of various fields to explain the law. These leaders will also hold press conferences across the country on the issue.
Among others, young MP from Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal has also been involved in the process.
The decision on deployment of senior leaders across the country to dispel misgivings of common people was taken at a meeting which was held under the leadership of party working president JP Nadda. Also present in the meeting held at BJP headquarters were BJP's orgsing secretary BL Santhosh and Union Minister Prakash Javadekar.
Sources stated that 52 BJP leaders including Ministers, commission chairpersons and orgsational post holders participated in the meeting convened by Nadda.
Literature regarding the CAA, NRC and issues related to it was also distributed among the leaders.
CAA grants Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghstan and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.
Every BJP morcha has been asked to reach out to common people, sources added.
BJP has been in a fire fighting mode on the issue and Prime Minister Narendra Modi too had tried to give clarification on it during his rally at Ramlila maidan.
The clarification has been necessitated after a slew of protests across the country which also saw violence in some parts. The CAA and NRC have become emotive issues among the Muslim community.
Sources stated it is for this reason that the government and the BJP have decided to reach out to the community to dispel any myths regarding the emotive issue.
The party has prepared easy to understand videos, cartoon films and graphics to explain the CAA and proposed NRC issue.
The leaders were told to spread awareness about CAA in the public and reach out to as many people as they could. Booklet titled "CAA an introduction" was also distributed at the occasion. The booklet has main points of the speeches made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue.
The booklet also has details of stands of Congress leaders on the issue of CAA and NRC. The booklet lists the deterioration in population of minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh along with the tables showing exact figures.
( With inputs from ANI )