Obama soft-pedalled Pak's support to terrorism against India: BJP

US President Barack Obama should have clearly condemned the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai and blamed Pakistan for the incident, a Punjab minister and BJP leader said here today.

"Obama had successfully secured over 52,000 jobs for the unemployed in his country but had maintained a tacit silence about the prospects of jobs for Indians in his country," industries and local bodies minister Manoranjan Kalia told reporters here.

Kalia said that the visiting president had not spoken even a single word on the problem of a ban imposed by his government on outsourcing of IT jobs from India.

He said that the US president had soft pedalled the issue of Pakistan's support to terrorism against India.

We have no objection to an economically strong Pakistan but we cannot allow this strength to be used to foment trouble in our country, Kalia said.

In response to a question, he said that he was disappointed at the US president's decision of not visiting the Golden Temple at Amritsar, which could have generated a lot more goodwill.

While talking about inflation in the country, Kalia expressed disagreement with the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's charge that the state governments were responsible for the rising prices.

"Inflation is the direct result of the wrong policies of the central government," he said.