Obama ‘doublespeak’ on India PM Modi: Report
July 2, 2014, 12:33 pm

Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party secured the biggest election victory the country has seen in 30 years, giving India its first parliamentary majority after 25 years of coalition governments [AP]

In a report by Indian daily Telegraph, Obama is quoted as saying he “still has concerns” over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s past, a position which is completely at variance with the recent positioning and posturing of the US administration for laying a red-carpet welcome for the Indian leader’s visit to Washington in September this year.

“Obama replied in his calm, no-nonsense style that he continued to have concerns about Modi’s past,” says the report about the US president answering a question from one of the donors at a Democrat fundraiser about the new Indian Prime Minister.

Modi’s critics have accused him of not acting strongly enough during horrific religious riots in 2002 in his home state of Gujarat. Modi maintains that he did all he could to stop the violence, and a fact-finding body appointed by the Indian Supreme Court has also not found any evidence of his complicity.

Social media in India is abuzz with reactions as people tweeted expressing surprise and indignation at Obama’s comments about the elected leader of the world’s largest democracy.

“I should have concerns about Obama’s past too,” tweeted Shahnaz Malik.

“Obama doublespeak on Modi,” said a twitter handle @IndiaPolitico

The BRICS Post is yet to receive an answer from the White House on the report that quotes unnamed critical Democrat donors as saying Obama’s disclosure came as a surprise.

Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party secured the biggest election victory the country has seen in 30 years, giving India its first parliamentary majority after 25 years of coalition governments.

A Reuters report said last week that California Republican Ed Royce, chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to House Speaker John Boehner asking that he invite Modi to address a joint session of the House and US Senate during his trip.

“In every aspect – whether it be in political, economic or security relations – the United States has no more important partner in South Asia,” the letter said. “It is not an overstatement to say that the U.S.-India relationship will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century.”

At a White House news conference in August last year, Obama had ridiculed Putin for having what he called “that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom”.

Meanwhile, India on Wednesday summoned a US diplomat to raise concerns over reports of the US National Security Agency targeting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, terming it “totally unacceptable”.

TBP