RKM refuses to comment on ‘guest’ Modi’s remarks
KOLKATA: Opposition parties on Sunday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making a “political speech” at Belur Math, saying he has forgotten to differentiate between a spiritual place and a rally out of desperation to implement the “divisive” new Citizenship law.
Claiming that the countrywide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act or CAA have cornered the Centre, the TMC, CPI(M) and the Congress said the prime minister should have “spared the holy land of Belur Math from his divisive politics”.
“The headquarters of Ramkrishna Mission-Belur Math is known across the world as a holy land. The prime minister should have refrained from making a political speech there. We condemn it.
“He should not have turned Belur Math into a venue of a political rally. There is some decorum in politics and public life, we need to maintain it,” Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
Reacting to the PM’s speech, TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee said, “It only proves the desperation of the Centre and that it is on the backfoot after countrywide anti- CAA protests. We condemn such cheap politics at a religious place like Belur Math. The people of India will never accept CAA.” CPI(M) politburo member Mohammed Salim was hopeful that the monks of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission would condemn PM Modi’s “political speech” at Belur Math.
Monks keep distance
Meanwhile, The Ramakrishna Math and Mission on Sunday distanced itself from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, contending that it was a strictly apolitical body which did not respond to “ephemeral” calls. Addressing a press meet, Swami Suvirananda, the Ramakrishna Math and Mission general secretary, said, “The organisation will not comment on the prime minister’s speech on CAA. We are a strictly apolitical body. We have come here after leaving our homes to answer eternal calls. We do not respond to ephemeral calls.”
He said Modi was a guest and the onus was on him on what he had spoken at the Math. “But when you have a guest… Atithi Devo Bhava is the Indian culture. And you must extend all kinds of courtesies, decencies to him. And if something you feel ought not have been told, the onus lies on the person who tells it but not on the host — by no logic,” he added.
Asked whether Modi’s speech on the CAA was an attempt to ‘saffronise’ the Mission, Swami Suvirananda said, “We are already saffron but that doesn’t mean that we are saffron in the sense that is being interpreted in politics today.”
Protests against PM visit
Students, mostly affiliated to the Congress and the Left parties, continued protests here for the second consecutive day on Sunday against the amended citizenship act, despite PM Narendra Modi’s assurance that the new law would not harm the interests of any citizen.
Activists, who hit the streets on Saturday with placards that read ‘Modi go back’ and ‘Down with BJP’, continued their sit-in all night at Esplanade area in the state capital, insisting that their agitation would continue till the prime minister leaves the city.
Some of them also staged protests at several vantage points here since morning, raising slogans against the prime minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for bringing in the “divisive” law. (PTI)