New Delhi:
Last week, when Obama was unveiling his new healthcare plan, a Republican Congressman Joe Wilson heckled him.
The incident has drawn huge controversy and the former US President Jimmy Carter even equated Wilson's act with racism.
Obama spoke: "The reform, the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally."
Republican Congressman Joe Wilson shouted 'you lie' to President Barack Obama last week as he spoke on his healthcare plan.
But now, former President Jimmy Carter has called the Opposition to Obama's healthcare proposals racist.
"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African-American," Carter said.
That racism in connection still exists, and I think it's bubbled up to the surface because of the belief among many white people, not just in the South but around the country, that African-Americans are not qualified to lead this great country. It's an abominable circumstance and grieves me and concerns me very deeply, Carter added.
But Wilson's camp has denied race had anything to do with his outburst for which he was pulled up by the House of Representatives. Some Republicans have accused the President's supporters of playing the race card.
For a man who tried to play down his race in the election campaign, it keeps re-emerging with new controversies.