Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on Saturday, lashed out at former US President Barack Obama for his comments on the BJP government’s treatment of Indian Muslims by saying that under his reign, the United States had bombed six Muslim-dominated countries.

While addressing a press conference in Delhi, Nirmala Sitharaman said, “It was surprising that when the PM was visiting the US and telling people about India, a former US President (Barack Obama) was making a statement on Indian Muslims…I am speaking with caution, we want a good friendship with the US, but they comment on India’s religious tolerance. Perhaps 6 Muslim-dominated countries were bombed due to him (Obama)… More than 26,000 bombs were dropped.”

This comment came after US former President Barack Obama, during a media interview, said if ethnic minorities are not protected, there is a strong possibility of the country “at some point starts pulling apart”.

Obama made the remarks during an interview with CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour and said if President Joe Biden meets with PM Modi, “the protection of the Muslim minority in a majority Hindu India is something worth mentioning”.

Meanwhile, at the conference, the union minister defended PM Modi from questions surrounding the treatment being meted out to the Muslims in India and pointed out that out of 13 honors, that the Prime Minister received from different countries, six awards were from such nations where Muslims are in the majority.

“Honorable prime minister himself during the press conference in the US has said how his government works on ‘Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas’ principle and doesn’t discriminate against any community whatsoever but the fact remains that repeatedly when people join in in this debate and highlight issues which are non-issues in a way because if there are issues in states which are to be raised they are being raised at the state level,” Sitharaman said at the press conference.

Further, she added, “Law and Order is the State subject that people are taking care of it, and elected governments are there in each of the states which respond to it. To just allege without basic data in hand just tells us that these are organized campaigns which purposely are being leveled at the doorstep of the Prime Minister otherwise why would countries give such an honor to the prime minister and why would there be a distortion in understanding how India and its minority population irrespective of which religion they belong to minority population are being part of the Indian mainstream.”

Slamming the opposition, she said that as Congress couldn’t see the possibility of winning the election, they started such kind of campaign against the government.