On his visit to Kolkata Prime Minister Narendra Modi today, accused the Opposition of spreading misinformation about the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). While addressing the students at the Belur Math, the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, he said “I repeat again, Citizenship act is not to revoke anyone’s citizenship, but it is to give citizenship. After independence, Mahatma Gandhi ji and other big leaders of the time all believed that India should give citizenship to persecuted religious minorities of Pakistan,” news agency ANI quoted him as saying.

While blaming the Opposition of misleading people over CAA, Modi further said, “You understood this very clearly. But those playing political games purposely refuse to understand. People are being misled over the CAA.”

PM Modi will today attend the function marking the 150th anniversary of Kolkata Port Trust on Sunday and other programmes.

Earlier, today morning Modi paid tribute to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary at the Belur Math and visited the temple of Swami Vivekananda to pay respect to the spiritual leader, Mission officials said.

Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary is also observed as the National Youth Day.

The Prime Minister then visited the main temple building and paid tribute to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, they said.

The thoughts of Sri Ramakrishna emphasise on furthering harmony and compassion. He believed that a great way to serve God is to serve people, especially the poor and downtrodden.

At the Belur Math this morning, I paid tributes to Sri Ramakrishna. pic.twitter.com/Es9vPSH80q

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2020

He also took part in the morning prayer meeting around 9.30 am at the Math premises, officials said.

The Prime Minister was received by senior monks of the order after he reached Belur Math on Saturday evening, taking the river route from Kolkata.

PM Modi on his two days visit to Kolkata met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday evening at Raj Bhavan. The meeting came amid a massive protest in the city on PM’s visit as many protesters gathered at the Kolkata airport raising slogans against him.

Addressing the media outside Raj Bhavan, Mamata Banerjee said, “It was a courtesy call since he has come to Bengal. I told him that people of the state are not accepting the NRC (National Register of Citizens), NPR (National Population Register) and CAA. I asked him to rethink these steps.”

To mark protest against the Prime Minister’s visit to Kolkata, hundreds of protesters holding black flags staged a demonstration at Kolkata airport’s gate number one, Yesterday.

Keeping in mind the security of PM, the police had put up a barricade to prevent them from crossing over the airport side. From the airport, a chopper took PM to the Royal Calcutta Turf Club (RCTC) and from there he left for the Raj Bhavan.

As per the reports, as the convoy emerged outside the RCTC, protesters stood at the AJC Bose Road flyover flank and waved national flags, black flags and shouted slogans against CAA.