Sagar Island: Coming down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Shankaracharya of Puri Swami Nischalananda Saraswati on Wednesday condemned the implementation of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and caste-based politics in the country. He made the remark on his visit to Sagar Island for Ganga Sagar Mela. The controversial act was passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 2019. It seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non- Muslim refugees coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing religious persecution there. "Rather than building Mandir and Masjid, the Central Government should come up with welfare schemes for the people and farmers," he said. He reiterated that ?ndia has seen both Muslim (Dr.A. P. J. Abdul Kalam) and Hindu Presidents (Pratibha Patil). India is a secular country giving equal respect to every religion, he insisted. The remark comes on a day when the farmers protesting at Delhi borders said they would burn copies of Centres new agriculture laws at all demonstration sites as a mark of protest against the legislation. The protesting farmers expressed their apprehensions that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of the MSP and do away with the mandi (wholesale market) system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.

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