NEW DELHI: US President Barack Obama has delivered a double whammy against religious intolerance that will not make him very popular with the government that just hosted him in India. He has followed his parting shot against growing religious intolerance in India with rougher, and what many would say tougher, criticism saying, that the current “acts of intolerance would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped liberate that nation.”

President Obama was addressing a National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. He was highly critical of religious intolerance visible across the globe but along with the Islamic State, he reserved a special paragraph for India saying, “Michelle and I returned from India — an incredible, beautiful country, full of magnificent diversity — but a place where, in past years, religious faiths of all types have, on occasion, been targeted by other peoples of faith, simply due to their heritage and their beliefs — acts of intolerance that would have shocked Gandhiji, the person who helped to liberate that nation.”

He went on to add that this was “not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.” And went on to speak of bigotry on the social media adding,” when hate groups have their own Twitter accounts and bigotry can fester in hidden places in cyberspace, it can be even harder to counteract such intolerance.”

The US President in his last speech before leaving India for Washington, at the Siri Fort auditorium was open and frank in saying that guns and economy did not matter until and unless India was united and free of religious intolerance. The foreign policy coup of getting President Obama to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade lost some of the lustre after the Town Hall meet where the advice not to splinter India along religious lines was clearly directed at the right wing organisations. This was greeted with applause by opposition parties and rights groups, with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates having to choke back their responses given the fact that President Obama was a guest of their own BJP government.

Excerpts from the only speech President Obama delivered while in india without an Indian leader by his side, with the packed auditorium breaking into applause every few sentences:

“.. Across our two great countries we have Hindus and Muslims, Christians and Sikhs, and Jews and Buddhists and Jains and so many faiths. And we remember the wisdom of Gandhiji, who said, “for me, the different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden, or they are branches of the same majestic tree.” (Applause.) Branches of the same majestic tree….”

“...Our freedom of religion is written into our founding documents. It’s part of America’s very first amendment. Your Article 25 says that all people are “equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice and propagate religion.” In both our countries -- in all countries…”

“-- upholding this fundamental freedom is the responsibility of government, but it's also the responsibility of every person…”

“... Around the world, we’ve seen intolerance and violence and terror perpetrated by those who profess to be standing up for their faith, but, in fact, are betraying it. No society is immune from the darkest impulses of man. And too often religion has been used to tap into those darker impulses as opposed to the light of God…”

“...that every person has the right to practice their faith how they choose, or to practice no faith at all, and to do so free of persecution and fear and discrimination. (Applause.)

“...India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith -- so long as it's not splintered along any lines -- and is unified as one nation…”

“... In both our countries, in India and in America, our diversity is our strength. And we have to guard against any efforts to divide ourselves along sectarian lines or any other lines…”

“.. if India, as massive as it is, with so much diversity, so many differences is able to continually affirm its democracy, that is an example for every other country on Earth. That's what makes us world leaders -- not just the size of our economy or the number of weapons we have, but our ability to show the way in how we work together, and how much respect we show each other.”

The Modi government in Delhi sought to play down this speech, although there were angry murmurs from within. Just recently the White House when questioned by reporters in Washington insisted that this speech by President Obama was not intended as a parting shot. I don't believe this was a parting shot by any means. This was simply the President speaking to what makes us great democratic nations," Phil Reiner, senior director, South Asia Affairs at the National Security Council of the White House said.

"If you look at the entirety of the speech, the speech was about how both the United States and India have these core democratic values and principles that allow us to continue to provide for all of our people," Reiner told reporters at a briefing held at the Washington Foreign Press Centre.He also strongly refuted allegations that Obama's remarks on religious tolerance was aimed at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

However, the Town Hall speech was interpreted in India and clearly across the world judging from the media coverage as exactly that, a “parting shot” against the backdrop of the ‘ghar wapsi’ and ‘love jihad’ campaigns being carried out by the right wing organisations targeting the minorities in India. President Obama’s remarks at the prayer breakfast now follow a police attack on Christian clergy and others protesting peacefully for justice and security. It is perhaps not a coincidence that Gandhi was again invoked by President Obama in words with a sharper cutting edge than the Town Hall speech.

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