After Obama's shots, NYT asks Modi to break his 'dangerous silence'

Washington, Feb 7: As President Barack Obama's comments that religious intolerance in India would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi raised a storm in India, the New York Times asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his "deafening silence." Mahatma Gandhi's legacy is an inspiration for the US too, said the White House, while a bipartisan commission praised the president for his "timely comments" and the State Department said it encouraged all governments around the world to respect religious freedom. "What will it take for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak out about the mounting violence against India's religious minorities?" asked the New York Times Saturday in an editorial titled "Modi's Dangerous Silence" "Attacks at Christian places of worship have prompted no response from the man elected to represent and to protect all of India's citizens," said the influential daily. "Nor has he addressed the mass conversion to Hinduism of Christians and Muslims who have been coerced or promised money," it said. "Modi's continued silence before such troubling intolerance increasingly gives the impression that he either cannot or does not wish to control the fringe elements of the Hindu nationalist right," the Times suggested.