'Obama Should Spend His Energy on...': Former USCIRF Commissioner Slams Ex-US President's Remarks

Former Commissioner of United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) hit out at Barack Obama’s statement about minority rights in India, saying that the ex-President should spend his energy complimenting India more than criticizing it.

Johnnie Moore said that India is the most diverse country in human history and the diversity is its strength. He also added that the US can learn a lot from India and that the ties between the two countries have been taken to a whole different hemisphere.

“I think the former president (Barack 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, just like the US is not a perfect country, but its diversity is its strength,” Johnnie Moore said, according to ANI.

The former USCIRF Commissioner’s statement comes in response to an interview where Obama reportedly said that if India does not protect the rights of ethnic minorities, there is a strong possibility at some point that the country starts pulling apart.

“If the (US) President meets with Prime Minister Modi, then the protection of the Muslim minority in a Hindu majority India is worth mentioning. 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, there is a strong possibility that India would at some point start pulling apart,” Obama told CNN in an interview.

Obama’s statements received a lot of criticism in India from leaders including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Johnnie Moore, on the other hand, said the US should be complementing India in every chance that they have. He added that it is better to privately criticise friends and publicly praise them.

“We should be complementing the largest democracy in every chance that we have. With your friends, it is better to privately criticise and publicly praise. That’s good geopolitics,” the former USCIRF Commissioner further said.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US was historic for America as well as it reminded the US citizens of “their own confidence in the democratic system.”

“It wasn’t just a piece of history for India. It was a piece of history for the US as well. The Prime Minister demonstrated a confident India that was ready to take on the world. In some ways he reminded Americans of our own confidence in the democratic system,” Moore said.

On the question of minority and the Indian democracy, he said India is an incredibly pluralistic country and the democracy is alive and well in India.

“Democracies are messy. This is the strength of democracy. It is in the basis of our diversity. India is an incredibly pluralistic country. It’s a country that fights for its democracy at every single election and democracy is alive and well in India and that certainly was the impression of the US Congress,” he further said.

He also added that PM Modi gave a gift to the US as he came and brought Democrats and the Republicans together.

Johnnie Moore also recalled his time in India where he met with Tibetan, Sikh and Christian communities during his stay.

“When you talk about minorities in India, I’ve been to Dharamsala and sat with the Tibetan community. I went to Amritsar and sat with the Sikh community. I know the Christian community really well, and I spent a lot of time in the Gulf,” he said.

He further added that Egypt rolled out the red carpet for PM Modi and also conferred him with the highest honour during the recent visit to Cairo.

“I was incredibly thrilled to see the Indian PM make another historic visit to Cairo. Egyptian president rolled out the red carpet and gave PM Modi the most important honour that any leader can receive from the Arab Republic of Egypt. And that alone sends a clear message from the Islamic world,” he added.

Modi went to Egypt on his maiden tour after concluding his high-profile state visit to the US. During the visit, he held talks with President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and was conferred the Arab country’s highest honour ‘Order of the Nile’.

The former USCIRF Commissioner said that the sight of PM Modi receiving the type of honour in Egypt was ‘a powerful image’.

“It was a powerful image, which is very important to the President of Egypt, as well as the leader of the most populated Hindu country in the world, receiving the type of honour that he received,” he said.

“There are many, many forces, largely political forces all around the world, that want to divide religions and want to divide communities and divide languages. The message from the trip the PM made from India to the US and directly to Egypt is that there’s something more powerful than politics and division, and that is values,” he added.

He also added that the India-US ties has been taken to “a whole different hemisphere in the last several days.”

“The relationship between India and the US has been good for a long time, but it has been taken to a whole different hemisphere in the last several days. It’s been trending in that direction. But jet fuel was just put into the US-Indian relationship by PM Modi’s visit here. And that is only good for the world,” he added.

Last week, Johnnie Moore called India ‘a laboratory of religions’ and said the US can learn a lot from India.

“America can learn a lot from India. India is the most pluralistic country in the entire world. It is a laboratory of religions. I went to India to learn about religion and one of the remarkable things about India is, there are more languages and more religions and more diverse people in that single democracy that any example in human history,” Moore said after PM Modi’s address to the Indian diaspora in Washington DC held on Friday.