Will not comment on PM's remarks on CAA: Ramakrishna Mission

Belur (WB): 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.

The prime minister, during his address at Belur Math -- the headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission -- said that the new law would not take away anybody's citizenship, and a section of the youth was being misguided about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA.

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.

Swami Suvirananda further said that both Modi and Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee are not politicians but leaders holding constitutional posts.