Obama Did Not Accuse Congress of Leniency Towards Mumbai Attackers - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
April 3, 2023
A video is being shared on social media claiming that in his memoir “A Promised Land“, former US President Barack Obama stated that the Congress government in India adopted lenient measures against terrorists involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks due to Congress Party’s secret agreement with Pakistani terrorist organizations and to appease the Muslim vote bank. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: In Barack Obama’s memoir “A Promised Land,” he stated that the Congress government adopted lenient measures against terrorists involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks to appease the Muslim vote bank.
Fact: Barack Obama never made this claim in his book. He only discussed his conversation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who expressed concerns about the economy, Pakistan, and political repercussions, but there was no mention of Congress adopting lenient measures to appease the Muslim vote bank. Additionally, there are no credible news reports to support this claim. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To clarify the matter, we referred to chapter 26 of “A Promised Land” where Barack Obama discusses India and its political leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. During a private conversation with Singh at a dinner party in New Delhi, Obama recalls Singh expressing concerns about several issues, including the impact of the global economic slowdown on India’s job market, Pakistan’s failure to cooperate with India in investigating the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, and the political repercussions of Singh’s restraint in response to the attacks.
On the economy: Singh was worried about the global slowdown’s impact on India, particularly in terms of generating jobs for the country’s young and rapidly growing population.
On Pakistan: The Prime Minister expressed his concerns about Pakistan’s failure to cooperate with India in investigating the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, which had increased tensions between the two countries. Lashkar-e-Taiba, the terrorist organization responsible for the attacks, was believed to have links to Pakistan’s intelligence service.
On Political repercussions: Singh resisted calls to retaliate against Pakistan after the attacks, which cost him politically. He also feared that the rising anti-Muslim sentiment in India had strengthened the influence of the main opposition party, the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
It is important to clarify that while Obama did discuss Singh’s concerns about Pakistan and the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, he never made the claim in his book about the Congress party’s agreement with Pakistan or adopting lenient measures against terrorists to appease the Muslim vote bank. Moreover, there is no credible news report to substantiate the claim made in the viral post about Obama’s comments on the Congress party’s lenient measures towards Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists. To learn more about what Obama said regarding Indian politicians, click here.
To sum it up, while Barack Obama did discuss his conversation with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his book “A Promised Land,” he never made the claim that the Congress government adopted lenient measures against terrorists involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks to appease the Muslim vote bank.