Ex-chief of religious freedom panel slams Obama’s comment on India

I think the former president (Obama) should spend his energies complimenting India more than criticizing India, said former commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

Earlier, Obama had stated that it would be important to raise the safety of the Muslim minority in a predominantly Hindu India if President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Modi met. (Image: ANI)

New Delhi: Johnnie Moore, a former commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), believes former President Barack Obama should spend more time praising India than criticizing it.

“I think the former president (Obama) should spend his energy complimenting India more than criticizing India. India is the most diverse country in human history. It’s not a perfect country, like the United States, it’s not a perfect country, but its diversity is its strength, and we should compliment the greatest democracy in the world every chance we can, that we have,” said Moore, an evangelical leader, the officer said in an interview with ANI.

What Obama Said:

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Obama said India is likely to eventually fall apart if the rights of ethnic minorities are not protected. Obama also stated that it would be important to bring up the safety of the Muslim minority in a predominantly Hindu India if President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Modi meet, as reported by NDTV.

“By the way, if I had a conversation with Prime Minister Modi, who I know well, part of my argument would be that if you don’t protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, chances are that India, at some point, will start pull apart. And we’ve seen what happens when you start having those kinds of big internal conflicts. That would therefore be contrary to the interests of not only Muslim Indians but also Hindu Indians. I think it’s important to be able to talk about these things honestly. Things won’t be as clean as you want them to be because the world is complicated,” the former US president previously told CNN, the report said.

#WATCH | In response to former US President Barack Obama’s comments on the rights of Indian Muslims, Johnnie Moore, former Commissioner of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, says: “I think the former President (Barack Obama) should devote his energies to complimenting… pic.twitter.com/227e1p17Ll

— ANI (@ANI) June 26, 2023