The BJP is known for its ingenuity. The latest in this saga is the missed call drive to drum up support for the controversial citizenship law.
So, it was no surprise when Home Minister Amit Shah, while addressing a public event, asked each person in the gathering to dial 8866288662, the phone notified number for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act drive.
To entice the callers, he promised that those dialling the number would deliver their message of support directly to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
First, Shah asked the audience: "Friends, those of you who are here, how many have mobiles? No...Don't just raise your hands. Hold up your mobile phones. Even those at the back..." Did everyone have their phones, the BJP chief asked.
"So I will now speak out a number that will send your support straight to Modi-ji. I will say it twice...it is a 10-digit number. So dial 8866288662." He repeated the number and then urged:
"Have you got 10 digits? Now, please dial the number? Done?" Another repeat of the number, just for good measure. "Get your friends, family, relatives to dial this number and make a missed call in support of Narendra Modi.
This missed call will open the eyes of those who do vote bank politics. Within two days this missed call number will cross 50 lakh," declared Shah.
But the inventive exercise has its drawbacks. Many accounts on Twitter shared the number, sounding almost like agony women "waiting" for the invigorating call from the right man.
Then came the offer of a free Netflix subscription by dialling the number, which was roundly rejected as "fake" by the streaming service. "This is absolutely fake. If you want free Netflix please use someone else's account like the rest of us," said Netflix in a statement.
