Asserting that U.S. President Barack Obama has left no room for any kind of misinterpretation with his remark that acts of religious intolerance in India would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Friday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'leucoplast' silence on this matter.
"I think Obama has said it as clearly as it can be said. It leaves no room for any kind of misinterpretation of what he said. He said it loud and clear. We have been saying it loud and clear. Now, somebody should take notice. And the Prime Minister listens to all this, he talks about 115 other subjects but on this subject he has 'leucoplast'," said TMC MP Derek O'Brien.
The TMC leader added he was not surprised that Obama said what he had to say because this was a peaceful protest.
"There were priests, there were nuns. It was very very shameful. It should have never happened. And I am in Delhi today, I am going to talk to the senior church officials; this has to go beyond Delhi now," O'Brien said.
"So, I will urge the Christian community across the country to protest because in the way the silent, peaceful protest was treated yesterday with the police brutality," he added.
Scores of Christians were arrested yesterday during a protest against the government inaction following a series of attacks on local churches in the national capital.
O'Brien further made it clear that the TMC would raise this issue in the Parliament.
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"Let me tell you we did not come to the protest but we already two days before the protest we gave our full solidarity, we gave our full support. We didn't want to put up a political colour but now I have second thoughts. May be we should have been there to help those innocent protestors who were fighting the police," he said.
Speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast, the U.S. President yesterday said the acts of intolerance experienced by religious faiths of all types in India in the past few years would have shocked Gandhi.
He, however, did not name any particular religion and said the violence is not unique to one group or one religion.
Earlier in an address at New Delhi's Siri Fort auditorium on January 27 during the last leg of his India trip, Obama had made a strong pitch for religious tolerance, cautioning that India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along the lines of religious faith.