NEW DELHI: India is facing a major diplomatic row with Muslim countries, including Pakistan, after top officials from the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party party made insulting remarks about the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), with Pakistan issuing a demarche to the Indian charge d’affaires over the comments.
Last week, two BJP spokespeople, Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, made speculative remarks that were seen as insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and his wife Aisha. The BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal on Sunday, but only following a chorus of diplomatic outrage from Islamic countries and institutions, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
India's trade with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman and the UAE, stood around $90 billion in 2020-21. Millions of Indians live and work in GCC countries.
Pakistan's Armed Forces in a tweet "strongly condemn blasphemous remarks" by Indian officials.
"The outrageous act is deeply hurtful and clearly indicates extreme level of hate against Muslims and other religions in India," it said.
Separately, the Indian Charge d’ Affaires in Islamabad was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and conveyed the government of Pakistan’s “categorical rejection and strong condemnation of the highly derogatory remarks, the Pakistani foreign office said in a statement.
“He was told that these remarks are totally unacceptable and have not only deeply hurt the sentiments of the people of Pakistan but of Muslims across the world,” the foreign office said, urging the BJP leadership and the government of India to “unequivocally condemn the sacrilegious comments of the BJP officials and ensure that they are held accountable through decisive and demonstrable action.”
Saudi Arabia and Iran also lodged complaints with India, and the Jeddah-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation said the remarks came in a “context of intensifying hatred and abuse toward Islam in India and systematic practices against Muslims.”
Riyadh said the comments were “insulting” while Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said it expected a “public apology” from the Indian government. Kuwait warned India would see “an increase of extremism and hatred” if the comments went unpunished.
The Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman described the “obscene rudeness” of Modi’s party toward Islam as a form of “war.”
Criticism also came from Kabul, with the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan saying the Indian government should not allow “such fanatics to insult ... Islam and provoke the feelings of Muslims.”
The controversial remarks by the BJP officials follow increasing violence by Hindu nationalists targeting India’s Muslim minority, which makes up about 13 percent of its 1.35 billion population.
The US State Department in its annual report to the Congress on international religious freedom released in June, alleged that attacks on members of minority communities, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, took place in India throughout 2021. Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said India was seeing “rising attacks on people and places of worship,” eliciting a response from New Delhi, which called the comments “ill-informed.”
“The government of India should have seen what was coming and should have proactively stopped all these hate propaganda, politics and activities,” Sudheendra Kulkarni, political activist and former advisor to the former BJP Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, told Arab News. Unfortunately, the ruling party was promoting it … It’s not the BJP but the country that will bear the cost of anti-Muslim politics.”
“India cannot afford to have an Arab world which is angry with India,” foreign policy expert Manoj Joshi told Arab News.
The Indian government has yet to comment on the protests lodged by Arab nations, but the Ministry of External Affairs said on Monday the OIC’s statement on the matter was “unwarranted” and “narrow-minded.” India’s embassies in Qatar and Doha issued statements that the views expressed by the BJP officials did not reflect those of the government in New Delhi.
“The BJP does not believe in disrespecting reverential figures of any religion,” spokesperson Sudesh Verma told Arab News.