As various student groups protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) get whole-hearted support of the Left and Opposition parties, the BJP has pressed its student wing ABVP to provide the counter-narrative on the amended law.
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), joined by a section of teachers, on Wednesday took out a march in the university campus in solidarity with the amended citizenship law.
The development came even as the protest continued in Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university and other higher education institutions against the amended citizenship law.
Kanhaiya Kumar, former president of the JNU students union, on Wednesday, lent his support to the Jamia students and addressed a huge public gathering outside the JMI campus.
He said both the amended citizenship law and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) should be protested “tooth and nail”, but peacefully. "Remember, we hold a pen and not AK-47," he said.
Kumar got a rousing welcome with loud cheers as he stressed the protests against the citizenship law would go down in history "as the one that saved the Constitution".
Denouncing the protest by the Left-backed students' unions and others against the CAA, the ABVP, meanwhile, asserted that the amended law does not intend to take away the citizenship of Muslims as being propagated by those with a vested interest.
The BJP's student wing plans to hold solidarity march in universities and colleges in different parts of the country to "bust the myths and misinformation" with regard to the aims and objects of the CAA.
It has also circulated an FAQ (frequently asked questions), recently released by the Union government which contains answers to a number of questions on the aims, objects and scope of the CAA, urging its members to further "spread the word of truth."
"We are spearheading a positive campaign to ensure that misinformation is not spread about the CAA," Durgesh Kumar, ABVP's JNU unit president said.