Sir — Headlines of most of the newspapers, highlighted President Obama’s alleged ‘rebuke’ or caution which has widely been read as a message to the Hindutva votaries to lay-off, to let the minorities be, as it were. Even the Congress could not conceal its glee at the US President’s denouncement of religious sectarianism by BJP supporters, but commented that the Government of Indian shouldn’t need a nudge from a guest to act against bigotry. The pseudo-secularists might like to notice that even in the US, religion is so important that a leading politician is always at great pains to affirm his faith in the majority religion rather than ignore as avoidable noise any suggestion that he might belong to a different faith.
Or simply put, if his religion did not matter, why was Mr Obama at pains to emphasise that he was a Christian or, conversely, that he was not a Muslim, as alleged by some in the Republican PartyIJ Despite Mr Obama making it clear that he was a practising Christian, and that Hussain was a concession inserted in his name by one of his grandparents as a tribute to his own Islamic origins, his vituperative opponents had often carried on a vicious campaign to suggest that he was a Muslim. Prejudices are not unknown even in the most developed nations.