Stung by NRC pitch, Bengal BJP to raise CAB awareness

After drawing a blank in the recently held Assembly by-elections where the panic due to NRC played a key role, the Bengal BJP leadership has decided to hold workshops on the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) for its workers. The BJP sources revealed that the decision was taken after analysis of the party’s performance in the by-elections revealed that a large section of party workers have very little knowledge about the Bill.

“It has come to our notice that large section of our workers, especially in the districts, have almost no knowledge of CAB, apart from the fact that Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Christians who have come to India due to religious persecution from other countries will get Indian citizenship,” a senior state BJP leader said.

He also said that during campaigning if people asked for any further details about CAB the BJP workers had no answer to their questions.

“This allowed TMC to run their false campaign about the adverse effects of NRC and CAB resulting in our electoral debacle,” said the BJP leader.

BJP sources said that initial analysis of the party’s performance in the by-elections has revealed that of the three Assembly constituencies -Kharagpur Sadar, Karimpur and Kaliaganj- the issue of panic due to NRC played a key role in Kaliaganj.

It has come to the notice of the state BJP leadership that party workers in Kaliaganj have mostly failed to answer the question by the public regarding the CAB.

Apart from holding workshops in the districts on CAB state BJP leaders will also regularly hold Facebook live sessions on the issue and the lectures will also be uploaded on YouTube.

Admitting that BJP was unable to counter TMC’s campaign on NRC Union Minister and BJP MP Babul Supriyo said that TMC “successfully misled” the people over NRC and CAB and we were unable to expose their falsehood.

“We need to properly educate our workers about the CAB,” said Supriyo.

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said that the workshops will provide comprehensive knowledge to party workers about CAB and how to speak to people on the issue during campaign.