After disparaging remarks about the Prophet Muhammad garnered concerns from Muslim countries, India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party has advised officials to be “very cautious” when discussing religion on public platforms.
According to the Reuters news agency, two leaders of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said verbal instructions were given to more than 30 senior officials and some federal ministers who are authorised to participate in debates hosted by Indian news channels, which are often broadcast live to millions of viewers.
“We don’t want party officials to speak in a way that hurts the religious sentiments of any community … They must ensure the party’s doctrine gets shared in a sophisticated manner,” said a senior BJP leader and federal minister in New Delhi, according to the report.
With about 110 million members, mainly Hindus, the BJP is the world’s largest political party, while Muslims comprise about 13 percent of India’s 1.35 billion population.
After Muslim nations requested apologies from the Indian government and summoned diplomats to protest anti-Islamic remarks made during a TV debate, the BJP suspended Nupur Sharma and dismissed Delhi media cell head Naveen Kumar Jindal.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran are among the countries that have made their grievances known.
The remarks came in the midst of an increasingly severe culture of hatred toward Islam in India, as well as systematic harassment of Muslims, according to the influential 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran’s foreign minister, arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday for bilateral talks with India, marking the first visit by a top official from an OIC member country since remarks against the prophet sparked outrage in the Arab world and other Muslim-majority countries.
Iran had summoned the Indian envoy in Tehran to lodge its protest against the anti-Islam remarks made by Sharma and Jindal.
BJP youth leader arrested
Meanwhile, authorities in Uttar Pradesh, India’s northernmost state, arrested a BJP youth leader on Wednesday for making anti-Muslim statements on social media.
Harshit Srivastava was arrested in Kanpur city last week after communal tensions erupted during a Muslim rally against anti-Islam remarks.
“We arrested the local politician for making inflammatory remarks against Muslims,” said Prashant Kumar, a senior police official, adding that at least 50 people were taken into custody following the tensions in Kanpur.
Srivastava’s lawyer was not available for a comment.
Sporadic unrest was reported in other parts of the country over the anti-Islam comments by the BJP’s Sharma.
Members of Muslim organisations in India said it was the first time powerful international leaders spoke out against what they considered the minority community’s humiliation.
“Now that our voices have been heard, only world leaders can nudge Modi’s government and party to modify their attitudes toward Muslims,” said Ali Asghar Mohammed, who runs a Muslim rights group in Mumbai.
Under Modi’s BJP, India’s Muslims have faced increased pressure on everything from freedom of worship to wearing the hijab (head scarves). Following violent riots in 2019 and 2020, there have been Hindu-Muslim conflicts during religious processions recently.
BJP rule has emboldened hardline Hindu groups in recent years to take up causes they say defend their faith, stoking anti-Muslim sentiment. Although the party has denied any rise in communal tensions during Modi’s reign, the party’s rule has emboldened hardline Hindu groups to take up causes they say defend their faith, stoking anti-Muslim sentiment.
According to the US State Department’s annual report on worldwide religious freedom, attacks on members of minority communities in India, including killings, assaults, and intimidation, occurred throughout 2021.
The insulting tweets and comments, India’s foreign ministry stated on Monday, did not reflect the government’s views.
“We are not barred from speaking on sensitive religious issues, but we must never insult the basic tenets of any religion,” said senior BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal.
Modi has increased economic relationships with energy-rich Muslim countries, which are India’s main source of fuel imports, in recent years, but relations have been strained as a result of anti-Islamic remarks made by two BJP members, according to foreign policy experts.
