Zee News campaign on Citizenship Act creates world record, over 1 crore people pledge support

In a world record, the Zee News campaign to create awareness among the people about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019, made history as a colossal number of over one crore people have supported the initiative till 8 pm on Friday evening. Owing to immense public support, the Zee News campaign has become the biggest-ever digital initiative in the country.

Photo Gallery: World's biggest digital campaign on Citizenship Amendment Act by Zee News

Through its campaign, Zee News is seeking the support of the people via a missed call. If you support the Citizenship Amendment Act, all you need to do is give a missed call on 7836800500 and 7834998998, which are toll-free numbers. The missed call on these numbers means that you are in support of the new Act. You can also show your support for the Act on micro-blogging site, Twitter, with the hashtag, #ZEENewsCreatesWorldRecord.

The missed calls that have been received by Zee News were not only from India but from people all over the world. The countries that supported Zee News in its campaign are people from--Pakistan, Afghanistan, Japan, Cambodia, China, UAE, France, Bangladesh, Israel, Indonesia and Brazil.

According to the data, on its first day on December 21, Zee News received a total of 81,000 missed calls, on December 22 it received 10 lakh missed calls, on December 23 it received 20 lakh missed calls, on December 24 it received 18 lakh missed calls, on December 25 it received 13 lakh missed calls, on December 26 it received 23 lakh missed calls, and on December 27 it received 15 lakh missed calls.

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The campaign was started in the wake of violent protests across the country against the Act. The public awareness campaign was launched on Saturday (December 21) to dispel the myths and rumours surrounding the new law. Since then, the Zee News initiative has received a massive response.

Explainer: Laws to acquire Indian citizenship even as anti-CAA and NRC protests escalate

Zee News, which is one of the country's biggest media houses, had launched the campaign to give voice to those who whole-heartedly support the citizenship law and to dissuade those indulging in violence to protest against the legislation. As a responsible news channel, Zee News has repeatedly urged its viewers and the common public not to believe in rumours and indulge in violence over the citizenship law.

The CAA aims to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

It may be recalled that nationwide violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) have resulted in the death of over a dozen people in several states and massive destruction of public property worth crores by the protesters in the recent past.

Despite restrictions and the government's appeal for peace, the anti-CAA protests continue to grip the nation with the situation remaining tense in several states including Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, UP and other Northeastern states.

Along with violent anti-CAA protests, assemblies and marches are also being held in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act in several parts of the country with the demonstrators hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bringing a strong legislation, which aims at granting a dignified life to Hindu and other religious persecuted minorities from three neighbouring nations.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced a communication campaign to counter misinformation spread by Congress and other opposition parties over the new law leading to violent protests. “The BJP will reach out to over three crore families. We will organise press conferences at over 250 places in the next 10 days. In addition, over 1,000 rallies will be held to clear the air over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and to bust the myth created by the opposition,” BJP general secretary Bhupender Yadav had announced.