[The president’s remarks came during a speech with a broader tough-love message, lavishing praise on India and pledging friendship while challenging it to cut back on human rights abuses. He urged India to protect the rights of girls and women, combat human trafficking and slavery, promote religious and racial tolerance, and empower young people.]
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President
Obama addressed an audience of 1,500 mostly young Indians at Siri Fort
Auditorium
in New Delhi on
the final day of his trip. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
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NEW DELHI — President
Obama pressed India on
Tuesday to do more to curb the pollution that is choking its capital and
contributing to global climate
change, as he wrapped up a visit that yielded no meaningful
breakthrough on the issue.
While India and the
United States agreed to cooperate in promoting cleaner energy, Mr. Obama left
after three days without the sort of specific commitment to curbing greenhouse
gases that he won in China last year. Instead, he used a
farewell speech before his departure to argue that India had an obligation to
step up, despite its economic challenges.
“I know the argument made
by some — that it’s unfair for countries like the United States to ask
developing nations and emerging economies like India to reduce your dependence
on the same fossil fuels that helped power our growth for more than a century,”
Mr. Obama told an audience of 1,500 mostly young Indians at Siri Fort
Auditorium on the final day of his trip here.
“But here’s the truth,”
he added. “Even if countries like the United States curb our emissions, if
countries that are growing rapidly like India with soaring energy needs don’t
also embrace cleaner fuels, then we don’t stand a chance against climate
change.”
The president’s remarks
came during a speech with a broader tough-love message, lavishing praise on
India and pledging friendship while challenging it to cut back on human rights
abuses. He urged India to protect the rights of girls and women, combat human
trafficking and slavery, promote religious and racial tolerance, and empower
young people.
“America can be India’s
best partner,” he said to applause, and he repeated his support for India to
become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. “But as I’ve
said before, with power comes responsibility.”
It was a notably pointed
speech at the end of a trip dominated by displays of affection. But Mr. Obama
had come under pressure from advocacy groups at home not to leave India without
delivering a strong appeal for human rights in a country proud of its
democracy.
Just before the speech,
in fact, he met with Kailash Satyarthi, the Nobel Peace laureate
who has long fought child slavery in India. Mr. Satyarthi told the president
that there were still five million child slaves worldwide.
Mr. Obama’s speech was
aimed partly at his newfound friend, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, who has been criticized for not doing more to protect
political dissent, guard against sectarian discrimination and tackle human
trafficking. In effect, Mr. Obama was saying that their developing partnership
did not mean Mr. Modi would get a free pass.
But as he often does
overseas, Mr. Obama couched his sharp comments with an acknowledgment that the
United States had its own flaws, an effort to avoid looking too much like he
was lecturing. He cited his own experiences as an African-American. “Even as
America has blessed us with extraordinary opportunities, there were moments in
my life where I’ve been treated differently because of the color of my skin,”
he said.
Mr. Obama appeared
particularly impassioned as he talked about the need to stop treating women as
second-class citizens. “Every girl’s life matters,” he said, as his wife,
Michelle Obama, watched from the audience. “Every daughter deserves the same
chance as our sons. Every woman should be able to go about her day — to walk
the street, or ride the bus — and be safe and be treated with respect and
dignity. She deserves that.”
In a country where human
rights groups say tens of millions of people are subject to forced labor, Mr.
Obama added that India needed to crack down on that problem. “Together, we can
stand up against human trafficking and work to end the scourge of modern-day
slavery,” he said. But he did not mention the case of an Indian diplomat who
was arrested in New York after being accused of exploiting her
housekeeper, an episode that roiled the countries’ relationship for a time.
Mr. Obama tried to link
India’s aspirations for its future to America’s own efforts to build a better
society, noting similarities between the constitutions of the two countries and
the diversity of large, multicultural societies.
“As Americans, we believe
in the promise of India,” he said. “We believe in the people of India. We are
proud to be your friend. We are proud to be your partner as you build the
country of your dreams.”
That message was noticed
beyond the auditorium. “Here is a world leader, who is the prime minister’s
friend, and he is saying, ‘This will cost you if you don’t stop. You’re
stepping up to the high table, and sitting at the high table requires you to
play by certain rules,’ ” Praveen Swami, a journalist, said on the television
news channel NDTV.
C. Raja Mohan, an analyst
speaking on the same channel, said the speech was a warning to Mr. Modi. “It’s
a good caution to the ruling party: ‘Don’t think you can keep doing what you’re
doing domestically and you won’t get a reaction from the international
community,’ ” Mr. Mohan said.
Mr. Modi has been careful
to stay away from divisive rhetoric since he became prime minister, but he was
an activist with a right-wing Hindu organization, Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh,
before he went into politics. Right-wing groups campaigned very effectively for
him, and since he was elected, they have pushed for a more activist agenda.
One group has announced a
campaign to convert members of religious minorities to Hinduism, arguing that Muslims
or Christians, or their forebears, were originally Hindu themselves. And one of
Mr. Modi’s ministers recently asked an audience, in a play on words in Hindi,
to “decide whether you want a government of those born of Ram, or those born
illegitimately,” words interpreted as derogatory to Muslims.
Though Mr. Modi is said
to have discouraged such rhetoric in private, he has so far made no public
comment on these events, as human rights activists have urged him to do.
“Because he is such a
strong leader and such a prominent face in government, it always comes down to
him, that he isn’t speaking,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, the South Asia director
of Human Rights Watch. “Does that convey the leaning of the administration?
Because that is why minorities begin to feel vulnerable.”
Beyond India’s domestic
issues, Mr. Obama’s speech seemed aimed at encouraging the country to play a
greater role on the world stage. Ms. Ganguly noted that India was a “chronic
abstainer” from United Nations resolutions on human rights violations in places
like Syria and North Korea.
“It’s an important
message to say we welcome India to the club of countries that influence global
affairs, but in that case you must influence it; you cannot abstain,” she said.
“You have to accept the responsibility of it.”
On a morning when New
Delhi was bathed in smog, the president’s remarks on climate change touched on
one of the central priorities of his meetings with Mr. Modi. Although Mr. Obama
and his team had recognized that they would not get the same sort of deal they
got in China in November, they were mainly left to announce a series of smaller
initiatives.
They took solace from a
rhetorical commitment by Mr. Modi to support a United Nations process to
develop a global climate agreement in Paris by the end of the year. But the
test will be whether India eventually makes specific commitments to reduce the
growth of its carbon emissions by a specific date. The president used his
speech to push the Indians in that direction.
“With rising seas, melting
Himalayan glaciers, more unpredictable monsoons, cyclones getting stronger, few
countries will be more affected by a warmer planet than India,” Mr. Obama said.
“The United States recognizes our part in creating this problem, so we’re
leading the global effort to combat it. And today, I can say that America’s
carbon pollution is near its lowest level in almost two decades.”
“We’ll continue to help
India deal with the impacts of climate change because you shouldn’t have to
bear that burden alone,” he added. “And as we keep working for a strong global
agreement on climate change, it’s young people like you who have to speak up so
we protect this planet for your generation.”