Sarma serves as chief minister of Assam, a northeastern state in India with one of the highest concentrations of Muslims, and is a rising star in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been criticized for its Hindu nationalist platform, mistreatment of Muslim minority rights and declining press freedom.
Against this backdrop of human rights issues, Modi, once banned from the United States because of allegations of encouragement of religious violence, is currently in the midst of an official state visit where he has made history by being the first Indian leader to address Congress twice.
Before Modi’s second congressional address, Obama gave an interview Thursday with CNN in which he emphasized protection of India’s Muslim minority. Obama said if he were in President Biden’s position meeting with Modi, he would tell the prime minister that “if you do not protect the rights of ethnic minorities in India, then there is a strong possibility that India, at some point, starts pulling apart.”
“I do think that it is appropriate for the president of the United States, where he or she can, to uphold those principles and to challenge — whether behind closed doors or in public — trends that are troubling,” Obama added.
Sarma’s comment came in response to a tweet by journalist Rohini Singh, who asked if the Assam police were “on their way to Washington” to arrest Obama.
In Sarma’s tweet, in which he misspelled Obama’s middle name, the Indian politician told Singh that “the Assam police will act according to our own priorities.”
There are many Hussain Obama in India itself. We should prioritize taking care of them before considering going to Washington. The Assam police will act according to our own priorities. https://t.co/flGy2VY1eC
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) June 23, 2023
Singh’s sarcastic remark came in reference to the Assam police’s previous arrests.
In February, under Sarma’s direction, the Assam police directed the Delhi police to arrest Indian National Congress opposition spokesman Pawan Khera for mocking Modi.
Khera’s detention is one in a trend of arrests nationwide targeting those who oppose Modi or his government.
In March Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Indian National Congress party, was sentenced to two years imprisonment for defaming Modi during a 2019 campaign rally.
Sarma’s tweet “shows in many ways that what a mainstream BJP politician with sufficient stature and a constitutional office thinks of Muslims,” said Ashutosh Varshney, director of the Center for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University, adding that Sarma’s inclusion of Obama’s middle name was simply a way of “twisting” Obama’s statement into “one made by a Muslim,” despite the fact that the former president does not practice Islam.
The tweet invoking the former president came just hours after Modi conducted the first solo news conference of his nine-year tenure as India’s leader, giving journalists at the White House a rare opportunity to ask him questions. Modi has granted few interviews during his time in office.
When asked about human rights issues at the news conference, Modi told reporters that in India there exists “absolutely no discrimination neither on the basis of caste, creed or age or any kind of geographic location.”
