Hate remarks: Kuwait, Qatar summon envoys
Protest remarks made by BJP leaders against Prophet
In a major embarrassment to India during VicePresident M. Venkaiah Naidu’s ongoing visit to Gulf nation Qatar and in an expression of Arab fury, both Qatar and Kuwait summoned India’s Ambassadors there and handed over official notes protesting the derogatory comments of two BJP spokespersons against the Prophet of Islam. However, both Gulf nations welcomed the action of India’s ruling BJP which has suspended one spokesperson and expelled the other from the party.
Handing over an official note, Qatar also demanded an apology and condemnation from India which swiftly replied that the controversial views were not that of the Indian government but of “fringe” elements and that “strong action” has already been taken against those who made the comments.
In a major damage-control move monitored at top levels, India said it accords the highest respect to all religions amid reports of calls from some anti-India individuals in the Gulf region to
boycott Indian products.
New Delhi told Qatar that vested interests were trying to use the offensive comments by inciting people and trying to damage ties between the two nations. A similar response will be given to Kuwait as well.
Qatar also told India that “allowing such Islamophobic remarks to continue without punishment, constitutes a grave danger to
the protection of human rights and may lead to further prejudice and marginalisation, which will create a cycle of violence and hate” and “offend more than two billion Muslims around the world”.
But despite the incident, Vice-President Naidu met the top leadership of Qatar and was received warmly, in an indication that the two nations do not want their close ties to be endangered.
Qatar had played a major role in talks last year between India and the Afghan Taliban in Kabul. But the incident has definitely cast a shadow on the visit and the timing of both Qatar and Kuwait’s move suggests that the other Gulf Arab nations are also upset. For instance, the Grand Mufti of Oman Ahmed bin Hamad Al Khalili slammed the “insolent and obscene rudeness” of the BJP “spokesperson” who had made the offending comments.
Another significant development was New Delhi’s description of the two (now erstwhile) spokespersons of India’s ruling party as “fringe elements”.
In a statement, the Qatar foreign ministry said, “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned, today, H.E. Dr. Deepak Mittal, the Ambassador of the Republic of India to the country, and handed him an official note, expressing the disappointment of the State of Qatar and its total rejection and condemnation to the controversial remarks made by an official in the ruling party in India against Prophet Mohammed.”