Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's "Hussain Obama" comment was distasteful and undermines Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion during the US visit that there is no religion-based discrimination in India, the NCP said on Friday.
Sarma should apologise so that the world believes the prime minister, it added.
Reacting to a tweet by a journalist wondering if Assam police will now seek to arrest former US president Barack Obama over his remarks about `vulnerability' of minorities in India, Sarma on Friday said there were many “Hussain Obama in India” and his priority will be to deal with them.
The journalist's tweet apparently referred to FIRs being lodged in Assam against opposition leaders over remarks made in different parts of the country.
"Either he (Sarma) did not listen to our PM Narendra Modi ji's statement made in the US, or he is disrespectfully disregarding what he said," said Nationalist Congress Party spokesperson Clyde Crasto.
Modi had said that in India, "regardless of caste, creed, religion, gender, there's absolutely no space for discrimination," he pointed out.
"This is a message that the BJP and its cadre including BJP CMs must follow. Otherwise, what was said by our PM in the US will not be believed by the world," he added.
The Assam chief minister's statement also insulted Obama, one of the finest leaders in the world and someone described by Modi as a "close friend," the NCP spokesperson said.
"Now BJP CM Mr Sarma must apologize to make the world believe what Modi ji said is true," he added.
Among others, Assam police had deplaned and apprehended Congress leader Pawan Khera in February and arrested then independent Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani last year.
Obama in an interview to CNN on Thursday had said that India may “pull apart” if the rights of the religious and ethnic minorities are not upheld and he would raise this issue if he had a conversation with Modi.
-With PTI Input
