Gulf nations summon Indian envoys over BJP members' controversial remarks

Several countries in the gulf region summoned Indian Ambassadors and expressed their strong protest against the controversial remarks made by Nupur Sharma against Prophet Mohammad

Joining Qatar, Iran and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned the controversial remarks made by one BJP leader against Prophet Mohammed and called for "respect for beliefs and religions."

Earlier on Sunday, the Gulf nations had summoned Indian Ambassadors and expressed their strong protest against the controversial remarks made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal, the head of its Delhi unit's media department.

The Indian Ambassador in Qatar said in a tweet that the controversial tweets do not, in any manner, reflect the views of the government of India. "These are the views of fringe elements," the Indian Embassy quoting him said.

Amid demonstrations by Muslim groups, the BJP issued a statement asserting that it respects all religions and strongly denounces insult of any religious personality, and suspended Sharma and expelled its Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal.

The foreign ministries of the two Gulf countries welcomed the statement issued by the party in which it announced the suspension. Incidentally, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu is currently on an official visit to Qatar.

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Several cases have been filed against Sharma in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Pune, accusing her of hurting religious sentiments.

Apologising for her remarks, Sharma said "If my words have caused discomfort or hurt religious feelings of anyone whatsoever, I hereby unconditionally withdraw my statement. It was never my intention to hurt anyone's religious feelings."

In a statement, the Ministry of External Affairs expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the statements as well and reiterated its "permanent rejection of prejudice against the symbols of the Islamic religion."

It also rejected anything that give rise to prejudice against "all religious figures and symbols."

While welcoming the measures taken by the BJP to suspend her, the ministry reaffirmed the "Kingdom's position calling for respect for beliefs and religions".

Sharma's comments, made in a TV debate nearly 10 days ago, and Jindal's now-deleted tweets, sparked a Twitter trend calling for a boycott of Indian products in some countries.

Sharma, who was a BJP national spokesperson, claimed that her comments were a reaction to "continuous insult and disrespect towards our Mahadev"' (Lord Shiva) as she could not tolerate it.

On Monday, India slammed the General Secretariat of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)'s comments over Sharma's remarks and said, "The Government of India categorically rejects OIC Secretariat's unwarranted and narrow-minded comments."

Hitting back. the external affair ministry in a statement said, "It is regrettable that OIC Secretariat has yet again chosen to make motivated, misleading and mischievous comments. This only exposes its divisive agenda being pursued at the behest of vested interests."