Bengaluru: One of the best ways to win confidence of your target audience is to convince them in toto about a particular policy you wish to put forth. 

And if you can’t convince, the next best option is to confuse. And if that endeavour too fails, it is better to concede. 

This is precisely what the Congress party has done apropos the Citizenship Amendment Act. 

It all began with the BJP government passing the Act in both houses of the Indian Parliament. 

And as it stood the scrutiny of law-making, the Congress devised numerous ways to somehow besmirch and spoil the reputation of the Modi government by advocating some of the most stupid yet precarious counters. We have inventoried a few here: 

1.    CAA is anti-Muslim 

The refrain in the Congress’s stance to prove Modi is anti-Muslim has been its untiring efforts to say it isolates Muslims. But as the government reached out to maximum number of people, it is becoming more and more clear that Indian Muslims are not affected in any way. And the persecuted Muslims in countries of PAB can’t be oppressed religiously. 

2.    CAA is anti-poor 

Granting of citizenship need not base itself on the financial health of the refugees. But former AICC chief Rahul Gandhi had compared the Act and even NPR and NRC to demonetisation, and claimed it would affect the poor! But this too has absolutely no ground! 

3.    No implementation of CAA in Congress-ruled states 

In simple words, this was another hogwash! Take the example of Rajasthan. The Congress government, headed by Ashok Gehlot granted citizenship to 8 Hindus from Sindh province, and there were reports that the Jaipur Development Authority had even granted land at a discount of 50%. On the other hand, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh even passed a resolution, taking a cue from Kerala, against the CAA. 

4.     States can’t say no to implementation of CAA 

On the other end of the continuum, there were those who said they won’t implement the CAA in their states. Pinarayi Vijayan is an example. But in the same state of Kerala, one of the Congress’s senior-most leaders Kapil Sibal said there was no way states could say no to what the Indian Parliament has passed. 

From anti-Muslim rhetoric to confessing that states must implement Parliament’s Act, Congress has only axed its leg on the CAA.