New Delhi/Riyadh: Anger against BJP leaders - Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal, has escalated with more countries, world leaders and institutions joining to slam their outrageous and inflammatory remarks against Islam and Muslim.
In response to Arab leaders’ anger, India Sunday called Nupur Sharma – BJP’s National Spokesperson and Naveen Kumar Jindal – the party’s Delhi Media Cell Chief, “fringe elements” who it said do not “represent the government”.
The BJP too first issued a statement saying “it respects all religions” and later suspended Nupur Sharma and expelled Naveen Kumar Jindal saying the “two had expressed views contrary to the party’s position on various matter”.
However in late night statements issued Sunday, more countries and institutions joined the protest against BJP calling its leaders’ statements part of “systematic practices against Muslims”.
"These abuses come in the context of the escalation of hatred and abuse of Islam in India and in the context of the systematic practices against Muslims and restrictions on them, especially in light of a series of decisions banning Hijab in educational institutions in a number of Indian states and demolitions of Muslim property, in addition to the increase in violence against them", Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) the largest body of the Muslim World, said in a statement.
The OIC called upon India to resolutely confront these abuses and to ensure the safety, security and well-being of the Muslim community in India and to protect its rights, religious and cultural identity, dignity and places of worship.
Saudi Arabia described BJP leaders' comments as “insulting” and called for “respect for beliefs and religions.”
In statement released Sunday, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said:
"It reaffirms its permanent rejection of prejudice against the symbols of the Islamic religion and refuses to prejudice all religious figures and symbols."
Earlier, Qatar, Kuwait and Iran had summoned the Indian Ambassadors in the respective countries to express their anger.
In a protest note handed over to Deepak Mittal, Indian Ambassador in the Arab State, Qatar demanded action and public apology.
“Qatar expects public apology and immediate condemnation of these remarks from the government of India,” Qatar Foreign Ministry said.
“Allowing such Islamophobic remarks to continue without punishment constitutes a grave danger to the protection of human rights and will create a cycle of violence and hate,” it added.
The secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) also issued a statement condemning Nupur Sharma's remarks.
In his statement GCC Secretary General Nayef Falah M. Al Hajraf affirmed his categorical rejection of prejudicing all the prophets and apostles as well as personalities and religious symbols, stressing the position that rejects provocation, targeting or underestimating beliefs and religions.
In Cairo, Egypt, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif denounced the BJP official's behavior as "a real terrorist action that helps to push the entire world to devastating crises and bloody wars." It called on the world community "to firmly ward off such threats."
Al-Azhar confirmed that the recent resort of some politicians to defame Islam to collect votes of extremists is a blatant call for extremism, spread of hatred and discord among followers of religions.
Meanwhile, hash tags calling for boycott of Indian products in the wake of insult to Islam and Muslims remain among the top trends in Arab states including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Oman and Bahrain even on Monday.
Reports coming from these countries Sunday had claimed superstores removing Indian products from stand with at least one employer saying he had sacked an Indian worker.
Back home, Congress, the main opposition party, called BJP’s action against its leaders a sham attempt at damage control, also calling it "blatantly counterfeit pretence, which is evidently farce". Randeep Singh Surjewala, Party General Secretary said:
"BJP's statement today saying it is, 'strongly against any ideology which insults or demeans any sect or religion' is nothing but a blatantly counterfeit pretence, which is evidently farce and another sham attempt at damage control."
Surjewala said that the BJP and its shenanigans have repeatedly and by design insulted India's centuries old civilisational ethos of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' by constantly pitting one community and religion against another to polarise, to divide and to spread hatred.
He said the BJP and the Modi Government are now founded upon religious violence, divisive conservatism and nurturing hatred to secure vote-bank politics. He said:
“None less than the Prime Minister and the BJP Chief Ministers, of the ilk of Yogi Adityanath, have introduced a new political vocabulary of State sponsored division of Society, i.e. "Shamshan-Kabristan", "80 vs 20", "bulldozer", and it is now entirely centred upon creating, propagating, promoting and executing a wedge between religions and communities based on what they wear, what they eat, how they live, how they celebrate their religion or even how they speak.”
The Congress alleged that the truth is that the BJP has pushed India into a dark age of religious polarisation to subserve its parochial political agenda in the short term. Its leaders as well as workers have perpetrated only one thing and that is creating a schism in India's universally celebrated idea of unity in diversity.
"The BJP and its leadership need to rethink the irreparable damage being caused to the polity by their insatiable lust for power. Resultantly, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians as also SC, ST and OBCs have had to face the wrath of lumpen elements backed by State Power. This cannot be the central theme of any political party."
"The placatory expulsion of two key members and spokespersons of the BJP from its primary membership, done obviously under duress of threats from external powers, exposes the much touted 'muscular posturing' and positioning of the BJP and the Modi Government." he said.
In a related development, senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Subramanian Swamy took a brutal dig at Narendra Modi government in New Delhi after India’s embassy in Qatar described Nupur Sharma as a ‘fringe element.’
Mocking the statement of the Indian ambassador, Swamy tweeted:
“That Nupur is a fringe element while as party Spokesperson!!!”
“With Jaishankar as EAM what do you expect? Who sent our Ambassador in Qatar the text to read from?” he asked.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) working president K.T. Rama Rao on Monday said that the BJP should first apologise to Indians at home for spewing hatred day in and day out.
Reacting to reports that some Arab countries have demanded an apology from India for the blasphemous remarks made by spokespersons of the ruling party, Rama Rao said that it is the BJP that should apologise and not India.
In a tweet, Rama Rao asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi why should India as a country apologise to the international community for the hate speeches of BJP bigots.
"It is BJP that should apologise; not India as a Nation. Your party should first apologise to Indians at home for spewing & spreading hatred day in day out," wrote KTR, as the TRS leader and state minister is popularly known.
KTR also tweeted that the PM's silence was deafening and shocking when BJP MP Pragya Singh hailed the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi.
"Modi Ji, Your silence was deafening and shocking when BJP MP Pragya Singh hailed assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Let me remind you sir; What you permit is what you promote," the TRS leader wrote.
"The tacit support from top is what emboldened the bigotry and hatred that will cause irreparable loss to India," he added.
KTR tweeted on the issue for a second consecutive day. On Sunday, he had demanded the BJP to suspend its Telangana unit chief Bandi Sanjay Kumar.
After BJP suspended its spokesperson Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal over their blasphemous comments on Sunday, the TRS leader demanded Sanjay Kumar's suspension.
"If the BJP truly respects all religions equally, should you also not suspend the Telangana BJP chief who made an open public statement wanting to dig up all the mosques & impose a ban on Urdu?," he wrote
"Why this selective treatment Nadd Ji? Any clarification?" KTR asked BJP president J. P. Nadda.
Bandi Sanjay, who is also an MP, made controversial statements in recent days. He alleged that Muslim rulers in Telangana demolished several temples and built mosques over them. Consequently, cases againt him were filed by TRS and AIMIM.
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