Union Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman strongly responded to Barak Obama’s remark about Muslim minority rights in India. She asked if people will even believe these remarks coming from a former US president, under whose tenure the country attacked 6 Muslim-majority countries with over 26,000 bombs.
She expressed her disagreement during a news press conference held at BJP headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday. Sitharaman said that she is restraining herself as we value friendship with the US but it was surprising that these comments came at the same time as the Indian Prime Minister visited the US.
The minister also criticized the opposition party as well saying that they are not mindful when they talk about India outside as they face electoral defeat and due to that people outside get a push to get involved in these debates without knowing the ground-level details.
What did Obama Say?
During an interview with CNN on 22nd June, which took place at the time when PM Modi was holding bilateral talks with US President Joe Biden, former US president Barak Obama said that “if the US president meets with PM Modi then the protection of the Muslim minority in a Hindu minority India is worth mentioning”.
Obama said that “If I had a conversation with PM Modi, who I know well, a part of my argument would be that if you do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, then there is a strong possibility that India at some point starts to pull apart”.
It is worth mentioning that under his presidency as well, in January 2015, during his speech in Delhi, Obama expressed his views on freedom of religion in both countries.
PM Modi responded to the religious freedom question
PM Modi had addressed a joint press conference with US President Joe Biden where the US media questioned him about religious freedom in India. In response PM Modi said that there is no space for discrimination on grounds of caste, creed or religion in India and that democracy is in our spirit and we live it, it is written in our constitution. He also said that India and America both have democracy in their DNA.
If we analyse Obama’s presidency, it is difficult to find a sync with these statements. There have been maps published on how many bombs were dropped during Barak Obama’s presidency on countries where there has been a dominating Muslim population. Also, India did not hold a very important position in his eyes during his presidency despite India’s efforts.
Obama did not have enough confidence in India and we might as well say that he was never serious enough about India. That possibly makes him unaware of the strength of India and hence he could give such a big statement.
