India should nurture its Muslim population: Barack Obama

NEW DELHI: India should nourish and cultivate its Muslim population which is successful and integrated and considers itself Indian unlike in some other countries, former US President Barack Obama said here on Friday while also observing that PM Narendra Modi recognises the importance of Indian unity.
He said he had spoken of the need for religious tolerance and the right to practise one’s faith in private conversations with Modi, a theme he spoke of during his last official visit to India as President in 2015.
Asked at the HT leadership summit if his 2015 comments were intended for Modi, Obama said, “No, I think it was a message to all of us. I have said the same thing to PM Modi in private but I have said the same thing in public in US and in Europe. With migration, people start looking different, there is a clash of cultures. There is a counter narrative taking place, you are seeing in Europe, you are seeing in the US and sometimes you see it in India. Where those tribal impulses reassert themselves. There are leaders who push back against those impulses and those who try and exploit them.”
Asked of Modi’s response to his suggestion, Obama said he would not reveal private conversations, but said, “I think his impulses are to recognise the importance of Indian unity. I know he firmly believes in the need for that and it is important to understand that this is the work of all of us.”
He spoke of his excellent equation with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who he said had taken important decisions. Asked for his opinion of Modi, he said, “I like him. I think he has a vision for the country that he is implementing and in many ways modernising many elements of the bureaucracy. I am also good friends with Manmohan Singh. He took steps to modernise the economy.”
Obama, who also spoke at a Town Hall here, said, “The unifying thing (between Modi and Singh) was that (they advocated) strong US-India relations were important.” Speaking on Pakistansupported terror, Obama said, “What is true, and an understandable source of frustration, is the view that sometimes there are connections between explicit terrorist organisations based in Pakistan and elements that are connected to various more official entities inside Pakistan.”
When terror struck Mumbai in November 2008, former US president said, “the US was as obsessed as India” to dismantle the terror network. US intelligence personnel, were deployed to help the Indian government, he added.