BJP’s hate-mongering has sullied the image of India internationally
By Anushtup Haldar
The embarrassment for the government of India continues to get bigger. So far, 16 Muslim-majority nations have lodged official protests against India over the controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammed made by two official spokespersons of the BJP recently—Nupur Sharma during a television debate and Naveen Kumar Jindal on Twitter.
The 16 are Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Malaysia, the UAE, Jordan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bahrain, Maldives, Libya, Turkey and Indonesia.
All of them have demanded an official apology from the government. Till now, the BJP has responded by suspending Sharma and expelling Jindal from the party. But what many political observers are saying is that this is just cosmetic, as hatred of minorities is in the party’s DNA.
The hatred against minority communities propagated by the BJP ever since it came to power eight years ago has now come home to roost. It is hitting where it hurts: most among the 16 nations are big trading partners of India, and annual remittances home by Indians working in the Gulf countries are greater than the tax collected from some of the biggest states in India.
As Maheshwar Pari, publisher of Careers360 magazine and the former president and publisher of the Outlook group, and an astute commentator on current affairs, wrote on Twitter: “Of the inward remittances, about USD 41 Billion or 3 lac crores comes from just the Islamic Countries. As a comparison, the total Own tax revenues(OTR) collected by Uttar Pradesh and Bihar combined in 2021 was Rs.1.56 lac crores.”
Further, “India’s merchandise exports to just 4 Islamic nations is USD 40 Billion. What happens if these orders are given to a poorer but Islamic nation only? Say Pakistan! What happens to the exports, industries, and jobs in India?”
Opposition parties have been demanding strong action against the duo but as of now, nothing much has materialised on that front. Opposition leaders as well as many common people are of the view that the BJP’s hate-mongering and minority-bashing have now sullied the image of India in the eyes of Gulf countries, countries whose rules and people have always held India and its secular culture in high esteem.
