‘Up to India’: Trump evades questions about Muslim-excluding citizenship law
NEW DELHI — Even as Hindus and Muslims clashed in the streets around him, President Donald Trump sidestepped questions about a contentious new Indian citizenship law that sparked violent protests throughout his visit, leaving at least 10 people dead.
During a news conference shortly before concluding a two-day visit in India, Trump said he had “heard about” the law, which prioritizes citizenship for non-Muslim foreigners from neighboring countries, but that it is “up to India” to handle. Trump did say, though, that he had confronted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in private about his country’s treatment of Muslims. Modi has faced years of allegations that his government discriminates against Muslims.
“We did discuss that, and we discussed that and specifically Muslims,” Trump said.
“And we also discussed Christians, and I had a very powerful answer from the prime minister,” he added without offering too many specifics about Modi’s answer. “We talked about religious liberty for a long period of time in front of a lot of people. And I had a very, very powerful answer. … And he said that they are working very closely with the Muslim community.”
It was an issue that loomed over Trump’s entire visit to India, which included a massive political-style rally at the world’s largest cricket stadium and discussions over a potential future trade deal.
Trump and Modi both rode into office on the back of nationalist, protectionist rhetoric and have since constantly faced questions over whether their subsequent policies unfairly target Muslims. In the U.S., critics have pointed in particular to Trump’s travel ban restricting travel from several majority-Muslim countries.
After Trump landed in India, observers carefully parsed his words to see whether he would address the situation in India, which has seen months of protests over the citizenship law.
In a speech Monday at Motera Stadium in the western city of Ahmedabad, Trump talked about religious freedom, praising India’s history of letting Hindus, Muslims and Christians worship freely, a pointed message in India that also plays well with Christian evangelicals in the U.S.
“Your nation has always been admired around the Earth as the place where millions upon millions of Hindus and Muslims and Sikhs and Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Jews worship side by side in harmony,” he said. “Your unity is an inspiration to the world.”
But such religious harmony has not been evident in recent weeks, with widespread protests over the citizenship law. The latest demonstrations were among the most violent to date.
Trump used questions about the law Tuesday to again defend his travel ban, which he signed just a week into his term, causing massive nationwide protests and prompting lawsuits.
“I won the travel ban, as you probably know,” he said. “A lot of people said I lost it. I won the travel ban. And we use the travel ban not based on religion, but where we think there’s going to be trouble, where we’re looking at certain countries. … So the travel ban is not a thing against Muslims.”
Trump also inexplicably said Modi had told him India had 14 million Muslims “a fairly short while ago” and now has 200 million Muslims. While there are roughly 200 million Muslims in the country today, that number has not been increasing nearly as rapidly as Trump indicated.
