Tag: BJP leaders on Obama

‘US Bombed 6 Muslim Countries’: BJP Leaders on Obama, After US Ex-Prez’s Remarks on Minorities

Obama’s remark that ‘protection of Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India is something worth mentioning’ has led to pointed attacks against him by Nirmala Sitharaman and other BJP leaders.

New Delhi: Days after former US President Barack Obama commented on the rights of ethnic minorities in India during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US, several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders targeted him in scathing attacks.

“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 India at some point starts pulling apart. And we’ve seen what happens when you start getting [into] those kinds of large internal conflicts,” Obama said in an interview to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

When asked on how Biden should engage with leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Modi, who is considered “autocratic… illiberal democrat”, Obama said, “If President (Joe Biden) meets with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, the protection of Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India is something worth mentioning.”

Reacting to the former US president’s statement, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday (June 25) questioned the timing of the comments given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a State visit to the US during that time.

She told reporters at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi that the US bombed six Muslim countries when Obama was president.

“Perhaps six Muslim-dominated countries were bombed due to him (Obama). More than 26,000 bombs were dropped – from Syria and Yemen to Saudi (Arabia) and Iraq,” she said.

“It was surprising that when the PM was visiting the US, a former US President was making a statement on Indian Muslims… I am speaking with caution, we want a good friendship with the US. But comments keep coming from there on India’s religious tolerance,” she said.

Sitharaman also implied that the Congress party was behind campaigns to target the prime minister and his government, the Indian Express reported.

“Politically speaking, since they can’t see any possibility to win an election against the BJP-NDA government, against the prime minister, that is why such campaigns are being run by people from within the country.”

She said the “role” of the Congress in such campaigns is becoming quite clear, more than during the last two (Lok Sabha) elections, the report added.

“They go to Pakistan and seek their help in changing the government in India saying ‘ek haath jodo’… and these kinds of toolkits that are run abroad, the Congress seems to have activated them all,” she said.

She further said that it seems Congress leaders are “not confident that people will listen to them”, so they are using these “tricks of inciting such baseless allegations” against the prime minister. But who will believe these people, she said.

“I believe that people from the Opposition parties, when they travel abroad, don’t talk in India’s national interest, because they know they cannot defeat Prime Minister Modi. They prop up such people to jump into this argument without knowing the ground reality,” she said.

Assam chief minister and senior BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma had by then already tweeted an Islamophobic line, saying: “There are many Hussain Obama in India itself. We should prioritize taking care of them before considering going to Washington.”

BJP national vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda said: “First, President Joe Biden finally went out on a limb to call a spade a spade – calling Xi (Jinping) a dictator; next, he had the audacity to treat PM Modi to rare honours and boost US-India ties to the next level. What a ‘coincidence’ that Barry (an apparent reference to Obama) waited till that very moment before raining on the parade, by bizarrely trying to equate India’s record on minorities to China’s.”