Arab countries threatened to boycott Indian products: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suspended spokesperson Nupur Sharma and Delhi BJP leader Naveen Kumar Jindal from the primary membership of the party. Action has been taken for allegedly making controversial remarks against Prophet Muhammad.
BJP took action on its two spokespersons only after a trend started against BJP in Arab countries and a campaign was also launched against the boycott of Indian goods.
A large section of the Muslim community in Saudi Arabia saw it as an attack on the Prophet Mohammed and thousands of people there are expressing their anger on social media. At the same time, people there are also expressing anger against the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It is noteworthy that during the panel discussion of a private news channel Nupur Sharma, this controversy started gaining momentum only after making objectionable statements against Muhammad. Apart from Nupur Sharma, Naveen Jindal also tweeted and made objectionable remarks about Muhammad’s marriage. After this, cases were registered against Nupur Sharma and Jindal in many parts of the country and demand for their arrest started rising.
Protests started in the Arab world
The effect of this statement of Nupur Sharma had reached the Arab countries. In places like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Dubai etc., there was a huge protest against this statement of Nupur Sharma and Jindal. Words like Nupur Sharma, Prophet Mohammad, Modi, RasoolAllah were among the top trends on Twitter in Arab countries on Saturday and Sunday.
In Arab countries, the people there started protesting about this statement. The citizens there had started a campaign to boycott Indian products. Some companies had also allegedly given an ultimatum to the Indian working in Saudi Arabia to be fired.
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu is on Qatar tour
Significantly, the campaign to boycott India and Indian products is going on in the Arab world at a time when the India’s Vice President Venkaiah Naidu is currently on a visit to Qatar. On Sunday, he arrived in Doha on his Qatar tour, where he is to have bilateral talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Abdullah Aziz Al Thani.
Between India and Qatar, there are several agreements to be signed on trade, investment and security cooperation. At such a time, it is not in the interest of the country to raise a wave of anti-India protests in Arab countries. Therefore, the government was immediately forced to clarify its stand on this matter.
India’s trade relations with Arab countries are very important. Millions of Indians do jobs in Arab countries. Recently, Saudi Arabia’s largest public sector oil company Aramco has signed an agreement with Reliance to invest in India. Just on May 13, the Indian government announced a day of national mourning on the death of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nihyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates. The Government of India had sent an Indian representative to the UAE on the occasion of the funeral of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nihyan.