The Indian government has been embroiled in a diplomatic dispute with the Gulf states after two ruling party spokesmen were accused of making Islamophobic and derogatory remarks insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata (BJP) party suspended its national spokesman, Nupur Sharma, and ousted its Delhi media chief Naveen Kumar Jindal after his comments went viral in the Middle East, where they went meet with a heart of diplomatic anger.
The governments of Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Afghanistan and Pakistan called the comments “insulting”.
In a televised debate 10 days ago on the right-wing news channel of India Times Now 1, Sharma made derogatory comments about the Muslim cult and the Prophet Muhammad and mocked his opponent in the Muslim debate. After a shout of comments, Jindal posted a tweet about the prophet, which he has since deleted, which also provoked anger.
Indian Ambassador to Qatar Deepak Mittal was summoned and received an official reprimand “expressing the disappointment of the State of Qatar and its total rejection and condemnation of the controversial statements made by a ruling party official in India against the Prophet Muhammad. “
Qatar apologized to the Indian government, accusing it of provoking “a cycle of violence and hatred.” Lolwah al-Khater, Qatar’s deputy foreign minister, said India was reaching “dangerous levels” of Islamophobic discourse.
The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry also summoned its Indian ambassador, Sibi George, to express his “categorical rejection and condemnation of the insulting statements” made by BJP spokespersons.
Oman’s great mufti, Ahmad bin Hamad al-Khalili, spoke bluntly, condemning “the insolent and obscene rudeness of the official spokesman for the ruling extremist party in India against the messenger of Islam.”
Pakistan’s new prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, who had recently sent conciliatory messages to his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, said the comments were an example of how “India under Modi is trampling on religious freedoms and persecuting Muslims.” .
When calls for a boycott of Indian goods began to gain strength in the Gulf, a major trading and energy partner in India, the BJP government tried to dismiss comments as “marginal elements” within the party and said “They don’t, by any means.” reflects the views of the Government of India. “
The BJP immediately withdrew the two spokesmen and said that “strong measures have already been taken against those who made derogatory remarks”.
However, many observers noted that the two had not faced any action when their comments were first flagged more than a week ago by Muslims and civil rights activists in India. Instead, BJP supporters had called for the arrest of the journalist who had called out Islamophobic comments on social media.
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On the right-wing news television channels of India, anti-Muslim rhetoric is exposed every night by BJP supporters, but rarely, if ever, is it met with apologies or retractions.
The incident highlighted growing tensions between the domestic policies of the BJP – a Hindu nationalist party accused of systematically marginalizing and monitoring the persecution of the country’s 200 million Muslims – and India’s foreign strategic goals and growth. trade with the Muslim world. Nearly 40% of India’s gas needs come from Qatar and about 6.5 million Indians live in the Gulf region.
The diplomatic incident occurred when Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu was visiting Qatar to further deepen ties between the two countries.
The decision to oust Sharma and Jindal was angered by some BJP supporters, who called the decision “cowardly”.
An online video shows Hindu militant leader Yati Narsinghan doubling his comments on the Prophet Muhammad and calling all Muslims “criminals.”
A U.S. State Department report released last week documented the killings, assaults and intimidation of religious minorities in India. The Indian government responded by calling the report “misinformed” and “biased”.