Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval has candidly admitted that derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammed (peace be on him) by BJP leaders has adversely affected India’s reputation in Arab and other Muslim countries.
He, however, said that the disinformation being spread against the country is “far from the reality.”
In an interview to ANI news agency, he said that India was forced to launch a major diplomatic outreach to convince the Muslim countries that the controversial remarks made by two BJP leaders – Nupur Sharma (now under suspension) and Navin Kumar Jindal (expelled) – did not represent the views of the Indian government.
“Probably there is a need for us to engage them and talk to them and convince them. When people get emotionally aroused, their behaviour is a little disproportionate,” ANI quoted Doval having said.
However, this is not the first time that India had to face diplomatic mess because of the irresponsible comments of BJP leaders. Sometime back, there were anti-India reaction in UAE and other Arab countries when a BJP MP Tejasvi Surya made insulting comments about Arab women.
Nobody disputes that the Government of India disagrees with the remarks of Nupur Sharma and Navin Kumar Jindal. But, at the same time, the government also did not initiate any action against the two BJP leaders. Their comments invite action on charges of spreading hate between communities and in a number of cases, persons having made communal remarks have not only been booked but also jailed. But the in present case, the police did not arrest the accused persons despite registration of criminal offences against them. The general public perception is that the authorities in the government are protecting the accused. Whatever action has been taken against the two accused, it has been taken by the BJP, not the government. To restore the image of the government, the minimum that can be done is the legal action to be initiated against Nupur Sharma and Navin Jindal. Expulsion and suspension from the party does not seem to be enough.
It must be mentioned here that Arab Muslim nations that have very friendly relations with India because of its religious tolerance, never interfered in the internal affairs of India. Be it Babri Masjid or the anti-CAA agitation, or the anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat in 2002, none of the Muslim countries, not even any of the international Muslim organizations, made adverse remarks against India or its government on any of these issues. They always said that these were internal matters of India, and rightly so.
As a friendly gesture towards India, the government of the United Arab Emirates allocated land for the first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2015.
But the impact of the remarks about Prophet Muhammad cannot remain confined to the geographical boundaries of India. By making attack on the Prophet, you are attacking the global Muslim community. As the issue pertaining to the honour of the Prophet is a very sensitive issue in Muslim societies, the ugle comments that went went viral on social media led to angry reactions from Muslims all over the world. Its effect are now being felt in Muslim societies in Arab and other countries. Nupur Sharma, or for that matter Navin Jindal, are no laymen that they are not aware of the impact an obscene comment about the Prophet will have outside the boundaries of India. Moreover, the debate on Times Now TV channel on May 26 where Nupur made the ugly comments was not even distantly related to Prophet Muhammed at all. Why did she then make a lewd comment? There was also no provocation for such a comment from any of the participants in the debate. None of the two Muslim participants in the debate spoke ill of any Hindu religious personality or Hindu religious symbol.
It is observed that for quite some time, it has become the habit of the radical Hindu elements to vilify Muslims and Islam. The unwarranted comments of Nupur Sharma during the debate, followed by indecent comments by Navin Kumar Jindal in his tweet, indicates how the disease of Islamophobia has entered the BJP’s mainstream. Neither Nupur Sharma, nor Jindal could be called fringe elements because they were holding important assignments in the party. It is high time that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and national BJP president J P Nadda warn their party colleagues of serious action against them if they indulge into spreading hatred against Islam. Telling the Muslim community that the offensive remarks of the party leaders do not reflect the views of the Government of India is not adequate.
