New Delhi: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted in response to a question on former US president Barrack Obama’s remarks on minority rights in India that the Assam police will “prioritise taking care of” the many “Hussain Obamas” in India.Himanta’s tweet was in response to journalist Rohini Singh’s remark on Obama’s interview to CNN on June 22, in which he said that if US President Joe Biden meets Prime Minister Modi, then the protection of the Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India is “something worth mentioning.”The comments were made against the larger background of Prime Minister Modi’s first US state visit and the growing clamour around it on the necessity to hold him accountable for human rights violations in India.“Has an FIR been filed in Guwahati yet against Obama for hurting sentiment? Is Assam police on it’s way to Washington to get Obama offloaded from some flight and arrest him?” Singh tweeted.Assam Police is known to make arrests in cases where opposition leaders have been critical of Modi, against ‘defamation’ FIRs. Singh’s tweet could have been an apparent reference to an incident in February this year, police of the state deplaned senior Congress leader Pawan Khera and arrested him for allegedly using objectionable words targeting Modi. In 2022, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani was similarly arrested over a tweet.In response, Himanta appeared to suggest that the Assam police will “prioritise taking care” of “Hussain Obama”s in India. This apparent invocation of an Islamic first name came unprompted.“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,” he wrote.Himanta is the head of the North East Democratic Alliance, the coalition of parties in the northeast headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party. In this capacity, he was recently sent to Manipur, which has seen brutal ethnic violence, and reported to Union home minister Amit Shah in New Delhi after the trip.In Assam, Himanta has spearheaded a series of initiatives which many activists believe and news reports say targets Muslims alone. These include widespread drives against land encroachment.Himanta’s tweet came on the same day when PM Modi, in response to the only open question he has taken from a journalist in eight years, said at the White House that “there is absolutely no space for discrimination” in India.“…[I]n India’s democratic values, there’s absolutely no discrimination neither on basis of caste, creed, or age, or any kind of geographic location,” Modi said.Singh has tweeted asking if Himanta’s line is the “official position of India.”BIG: Former President of United States @BarackObama profiled as Muslim and equated with a criminal by a BJP Chief Minister. Is this the official position of India @MEAIndia? https://t.co/J2aU2LKZGl— Rohini Singh (@rohini_sgh) June 23, 2023This article will be updated if and when the Ministry of External Affairs responds to a query posed to them over this comment on a former President of the United States.
