“If President (Joe Biden) meets with Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi, the protection of Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India is something worth mentioning,” said former American President Barack Obama on Thursday.
Obama was responding to a question by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in an interview, on how Biden should engage with leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping and PM Modi, who is considered “autocratic… illiberal democrat”.
Obama said, “The POTUS has a lot of equities and when I was POTUS, I would deal with figures, in some cases who were allies, who, if you would press me in private, do they run their governments and their political parties in ways that I would say are ideally democratic… I would have to say no.”
Providing the US’ democratic reality check, Biden also added, “You would have to do business with them because they are important for national security reasons, because they are a range of economic interests. I dealt with China and PM Modi to get the Paris Accords done because climate change transcends any momentary issues.” However, he remarked that it would be appropriate for Biden, “to uphold those principles and to challenge, whether behind closed doors or in public, trends that are troubling”.
“If I had a conversation with PM Modi, who I knew well,” Obama said, part of his argument would be that if you (Modi) do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, there is a strong possibility that India, at some point, starts pulling apart. “And we have seen what happens when you start getting large internal conflicts… That would be contrary to the interests not only of the Muslim India, but also Hindu India. I think it’s important to be able to talk about these things honestly,” he said.
In January 2015, during his speech at Delhi’s Siri Fort Auditorium, a day after attending the Republic Day ceremony as Chief Guest, Obama had expressed his views on freedom of religion in India as well as in America. “Across our two great countries, we have Hindus and Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, and Jews and Buddhists and Jains and so many faiths. And we remember the wisdom of Gandhiji, who said, ‘for me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree’.”
Obama’s much talked of visit had come barely half a year after Modi’s 2014 win and attacks, through lynchings etc had begun in several parts of the country.
“Our freedom of religion is written into our founding documents. It’s part of America’s very first amendment. Your Article 25 says that all people are ‘equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.”
In both our countries — in all countries — upholding this fundamental freedom is the responsibility of the government, but it’s also the responsibility of every person.
“The peace we seek in the world… finds its glorious expression when we look beyond any differences in religion or tribe, and rejoice in the beauty of every soul. And nowhere is that more important than India,” he had said.
Given the hysteria with which Indian electronic media channels have greeted Modi’s visit to the USA, this reality check from a former US President provides a much-needed reality check.
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