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NEW DELHI: India is dealing with a significant diplomatic row with Muslim international locations after high officers from the nation’s ruling occasion made insulting remarks concerning the Prophet Muhammad, with specialists saying on Monday the fallout might injury the South Asian nation’s relations with its Islamic nations.

Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, distinguished spokespersons from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Social gathering, made derogatory references to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad on completely different events, sparking anger amongst Muslims in India and abroad.

The BJP suspended Sharma and expelled Jindal on Sunday, following a refrain of diplomatic outrage from Islamic international locations and establishments, together with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the Group of Islamic Cooperation, as ire poured out on social media, and requires a boycott of Indian items surfaced.

The controversial remarks comply with rising violence concentrating on India’s Muslim minority, which makes up about 13 % of its 1.35 billion inhabitants, carried out by Hindu nationalists, who’ve been emboldened by Modi’s common silence about such assaults since taking workplace in 2014.

As criticisms from Muslim international locations mounted over the weekend, specialists stated India’s worldwide standing, particularly within the Gulf, is in jeopardy.

“The federal government of India ought to have seen what was coming and will have proactively stopped all these hate propaganda, politics and actions. Sadly, the ruling occasion was selling it,” Sudheendra Kulkarni, political activist and former advisor to the previous BJP Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, advised Arab Information.

“It’s not the BJP however the nation that can bear the price of anti-Muslim politics.”

India’s international coverage below Modi has prioritized relations with Arab nations and the shut ties it enjoys maintain significance for the South Asian nation, together with for oil imports and the remittances it receives from Gulf states, as round 4 million Indian nationals work within the area, sending over $80 billion yearly.

“For all these causes, India can’t afford to have an Arab world which is indignant with India,” international coverage knowledgeable Manoj Joshi, who’s connected with the Delhi-based assume tank Observer Analysis Basis, advised Arab Information.

India’s relations with the Arab world are passing via “a golden part,” stated Meena Singh Roy, who heads the West & Central Asia Heart at Tilottama Basis.

“We should always not do something to derail it,” she advised Arab Information.

Sanjay Kapoor, chief editor of the political journal Laborious Information, urged motion by the nation’s management.

“India’s picture has been harm badly and that is one thing that can’t be fastened by diplomacy, however corrective motion by political management in India,” Kapoor advised Arab Information.

The Indian authorities has but to touch upon the protests lodged by Arab nations, however the Ministry of Exterior Affairs stated on Monday that the OIC’s assertion on the matter was “unwarranted” and “narrow-minded,” whereas India’s embassies in Qatar and Doha issued statements that the views expressed concerning the Prophet Muhammad and Islam didn’t replicate these of New Delhi.

The BJP stated the remarks “weren’t in alignment with the ideology the BJP represents.”

Spokesperson Sudesh Verma advised Arab Information: “The BJP doesn’t consider in disrespecting reverential figures of any faith.”

Because the therapy of Muslim minorities within the nation has been a “matter of nice concern for the individuals,” India’s former international minister, Yashwant Sinha, stated the newest controversy might pave the best way for change.

“The overwhelming majority of the individuals don’t approve of this and now that there’s a backlash overseas these individuals will turn into extra cautious,” Sinha advised Arab Information.

Rahul Gandhi, chief of India’s essential opposition Congress Social gathering, stated on Twitter that the ruling occasion’s actions are weakening the nation on the world stage.

“BJP’s shameful bigotry has not solely remoted us, but additionally broken India’s standing globally,” Ghandhi stated.