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India will succeed so long as it is not splintered along religious or any other lines and stays unified as one nation, President Barack Obama said in his last engagement in India at Delhi’s Siri Fort auditorium on Tuesday, where he addressed a jam-packed hall of over 1,500 people.
“Our freedom of religion is written in our founding documents. It is part of our very first amendment. Your Article 25 says that all people are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and have the right to freely profess and practise any religion,” the President said.
“When all Indians, whatever their faith, go to the movies and applaud actors like Shah Rukh Khan, or celebrate athletes like Milkha Singh or Mary Kom, and take pride in the courage of a humanitarian who liberates children from forced labour and exploitation, that unifies the country,” the President said to loud clapping and cheers from the crowd as he made a reference to this year’s Nobel Laureate and child rights worker Kailash Satyarthi who was in the hall listening to him. Pointing out that diversity was the strength of both the countries, the President said there was a need to guard against any efforts to divide the country.
“In both our countries — India and America — our diversity is our strength. We have to guard against any efforts to divide ourselves on sectarian lines or any other lines,” he said, adding, “India has so much diversity, so many differences and yet it is able to continually affirm its democracy — that is an example for every other country on earth.”
The President was of the opinion that this is also what makes countries world leaders and not just the size of a country’s economy or the number of weapons it has.
In a speech of a little over 30 minutes, which he said was addressed directly to the Indian people whom he referred to as “brothers and sisters”, the President said that America wanted to be India’s partner not only in a host of sectors, including helping protect the health of its people and in building infrastructure like airports, roads, ports, but also in standing up together against human trafficking and working to end the scourge of modern day slavery.
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