‘Insult’ to Prophet: Outrage spreads from West to South, South-East Asia, India slams Pakistan

After its envoys to Qatar, Kuwait and Iran were also summoned to the foreign ministries, New Delhi sought to soothe ruffled feathers

Though it rushed to quell the outrage in West Asia over the comments made by the two BJP leaders on Prophet Mohammed, New Delhi on Monday hit back at Pakistan, which sought to take advantage of the uproar and raise the pitch of its routine tirade against India.

New Delhi reacted after its acting envoy to Islamabad was on Monday summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of the Government of Pakistan, where senior diplomats of the neighbouring country conveyed to him that the “belated and perfunctory disciplinary actions” taken by the BJP against its two leaders for the “unacceptable” remarks against Prophet Mohammed could not “assuage the pain caused to the Muslims”.

After its envoys to Qatar, Kuwait and Iran were also summoned to the foreign ministries of the respective nations on Sunday, New Delhi sought to soothe the ruffled feathers, pointing it out that the comments made by the two BJP leaders – Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal – had reflected the views of the “fringe elements” and not of the Government of India. The BJP suspended both the leaders following a nudge from the Prime Minister's Office, which acted after receiving inputs from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) about the growing outrage over the comments and the need to contain it fast, in view of safety and security of about 9 million Indian expatriates in West Asia and India’s high stake in its relations with the countries in the region, particularly in terms of energy and economic partnerships.

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Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also issued statements condemning the comments made by the two BJP leaders. So did Oman and Jordan. The outrage also spread to South Asia and South-East Asia with Maldives and Indonesia condemning the comments by the two BJP leaders.

India, however, sought to turn the table on Pakistan on Monday. “The absurdity of a serial violator of minority rights commenting on the treatment of minorities in another nation is not lost on anyone,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the MEA, said in New Delhi. “The world has been witness to the systemic persecution of minorities including Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Ahmadiyyas by Pakistan.”

India also strongly reacted to a statement issued by the general secretariat Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The 57-nation-bloc stated that the remarks made by Sharma and Jindal on Prophet Mohammed were part of “growing spate of hatred and defamation of Islam in India”. The MEA in New Delhi dismissed the statement issued by the OIC, terming it as “unwarranted”, as well as “motivated, misleading and mischievous”.

The comments by Sharma and Jindal drew a personal attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his counterpart in Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, on Sunday. Sharif took to Twitter to accuse the Modi Government in New Delhi of trampling religious freedoms and persecuting the Muslims in India. The MoFA of the Government of Pakistan served a démarche to New Delhi’s acting envoy to Islamabad, alleging that the “growing mainstreaming of the reprehensible anti-Muslim sentiment and the increasing attempts at depriving the Muslims of their centuries-old places of worship citing frivolous historical claims” were “nothing but the obvious outcomes of the deep-seated Islamophobia” in India. The Pakistan Army also took to Twitter to condemn the “blasphemous” remark of the two leaders of the BJP in India.

New Delhi responded by claiming that the Government of India accorded the highest respect to all religions. “This is quite unlike Pakistan where fanatics are eulogized and monuments built in their honour,” the MEA spokesperson said, adding: “We call on Pakistan to focus on the safety, security and well-being of its minority communities instead of engaging in alarmist propaganda and attempting to foment communal disharmony in India.”