 Hello everyone. Welcome to another capsule on international relations for the Shankar IAS Academy. Today we'll discuss the disturbing reports from Islamic countries, particularly Gulf countries, in reaction to some statements made by spokespersons of the Bharatiya Janatha Party some time ago. This happened at the end of May at a television debate. Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jinda, BJP spokespersons apparently made some disparaging remarks about Prophet Muhammad. Immediately there was some reaction among the Muslims in India and the Bharatiya Janatha Party took immediate action to suspend one of the spokespersons and dismiss the other. And also action was taken against them under the laws of the land. Some protesting took place by Muslims in India, hurting Erling Stone in Kanpur and about 50 people were arrested. But there was no serious repercussions in India itself because the government had taken action. But surprisingly, a few days after some of the GCC countries summoned our ambassadors, which is something that countries do when they are displaced with a country which has a diplomatic relationship with them. Summoned the ambassadors, our ambassadors in Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, etc., to convey their displeasure over what had happened in India. In fact, our vice president was in Qatar. And for some reason, a dinner organized by the vice president was cancelled on that day, even though this was not meant to be connected to what had happened. Some supermarkets in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia began to remove Indian products. And the Grand Mufti of Oman declared that the remarks made by the BJP members amounted to a war against Muslims in the east and west of the earth. Rather strong words. So our ambassadors pointed out that these were individual comments. Of course, not acceptable to India itself because it is against the constitution of India. It is against the religious relations between religions in India. India is a secular state. Every individual has a right to follow religious beliefs. And it behoves some people not to make any disparaging remarks about the leaders of other religions. But the protests in various ways continued in the Gulf countries. And the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, OIC, made some harsh remarks generally about India. As you know, OIC has been critical of India for a long time, except when they invited our external affairs minister to participate in a meeting in Dubai. This is the first time that an Indian minister was invited. And OIC, under the influence of Pakistan, has been very critical of our cationary policy. And every year they issue some kind of a statement on this, which is not described, subscribed to by all the Islamic countries, but it is issued in the name of all of them. And this is to explain to us that this is an OIC position, their own position is somewhat different. So it was not surprising that the OIC made a rather harsh statement about India. And government of India reacted equally strongly to them, because we knew that they were reflecting the point of view of Pakistan which has propagating this whole idea and was spreading. And the Al Qaeda want that suicide bombs will be used in India in protest. And there were some death threats were also issued. It is true that India, when such incidents take place, India takes a very strong position. And RSO ever is guilty. And this applies to the criticism, whether it is against Hindu religion or Islamic religion or any religion of that matter. The Americans, that is the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken said that India, that they had noticed that there has been a rise in the attacks on people in places of worship. And the Americans also chipped in. It is very well known that India has very special relations with the Islamic countries in the Middle East, and particularly the GCC countries. It's a very important partner for us, the GCC as a whole, and countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, etc. 30.9 million of India's 30.6 million expatriates live in the GCC countries. The whole world we have about 30.6 million Indians living abroad. And out of that, more than half are in the GCC countries. That's very important. Then the remittances, foreign exchange remittances to India from the GCC countries with the largest in the world up to 87 billion US dollars. So this will show the importance of GCC countries for us. And therefore these developments were seen by us very seriously. Not only that, the Gulf is among the largest trading partners of India. Two-way trade with GCC countries, Gulf Cooperation Council countries, is 87.4 billion, the largest trading partner. And the Middle East supplies more than half of our oil and gas imports. There are also close strategic relationship with GCC countries. As US partners now, we have stepped up relations with Saudi Arabia and UAE. And there is even a second quad, including India, UAE, Israel and the United States. So in so many ways, we are closely linked with the GCC countries. And it is very important that this relationship be protected. Although there were these formal protests, the reports that they were doing something against Indian expatriates, etc., turned out to be wrong. That was just rumors. But even these rumors disturbed the Indian community in these countries. And you may also know that the highest award of the UAE government was conferred upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And it was after Mr. Narendra Modi's first visit to UAE that the relationship flourished even more. At that time, they agreed to build a Hindu temple, a Swaminarayan temple in Abu Dhabi, which will be a symbol of the religious brotherhood that we have with the Islamic brothers in the country. So this is the situation which immediate attention. And apart from taking actions against the guilty people. Our ambassadors and other representatives went back to the foreign officers who had complained. Explaining the situation. Telling that this was reprehensible. And no words are adequate to condemn the remarks made by two former spokespersons of Bharatiya Janata Party. Which have heard the feelings of Muslims around the world, including India, because we also have a large Muslim population. They have been removed from the party. This is what our ambassadors told them. And criminal proceedings have been initiated against them. And what they have done in the, what they have done is in violation of the constitution. The precepts of the Hindu faith, which sees the whole world as one. And the fundamental decency and courtesy expected of civilized human beings. There should be no doubt they said that they will be punished according to the law. The sense of disbelief and dismay in many friendly countries in the Gulf and elsewhere. They're on account of the centuries of interaction with India. And the close bilateral relations which had developed over a period through mutual respect and understanding. In fact, it is because of the tolerance of other religions in the Gulf. It is for this reason that the presence of millions of Indians engaged in nation building without any impediment to their freedom of worship. I mentioned the temple in Abu Dhabi, which will be a shining example of the traditional religious linkages between the two countries. The foreign policy has always been secular. We did not make any discrimination between Islamic countries and others. In fact, if anything, we are closer to Islamic countries than some of the others. And also it is to be remembered that it was after the advent of the Modi government. That the relations between India and the UAE flourished and reached the present level of political and economic relationship. I think it a model for many countries. The Quad is an example of that. Quad is an example, a model for such cooperation with Israel, United States and the UAE. So, in other words, India and the Gulf countries are indispensable to each other. They have become strong partners in trade, energy cooperation, technology and human resources. We work together for the protection of the environment and ending of terrorism. So, millions of Indians of all religions live and work in the Gulf and they have never disrupted the political and religious harmony in their host countries. Indians who are normally very vocal about these things are very reticent and very careful when they make any comments on the other country, their religion or their policies. The goodwill and hospitality, they enjoy, enable them to be highly productive and loyal and they're all engaged in very constructive work for the countries concerned. So the point that we are making was that no disruption of their work should be permitted as it will cause damage on both the states. The remittances support the Indian economy and their dedicated service contribute to the development of their host countries. Even rumors of disruption of their work in the wake of recent events were a matter of concern in India. It is not unusual for problems to arise between countries because of lack of sensitivity about faiths and beliefs. There are some countries where I have noticed that Hindu images are sometimes printed on shoes and chappals and so on, which is really objectionable. But we have been very tolerant about this and we have brought this to the attention of the governments concerned. These are commercial purposes. But still we have seen it with understanding and we have simply requested them to not to do in the future. These are seen as aberrations out of ignorance. So India has never reacted strongly to such a dis-prespective Hindu religion because as Mahatma Gandhi said, if you take action, eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, then all human beings will become blind. In international relations, often domestic policies cast a shadow. This is not unusual because some other countries where Christian or Muslim are sometimes upset by the actions of the other religions to their religions. This has happened in the past also. But the point is that we always make it and then understand the personal freedom of the people in India to even criticize their own gods and goddesses. And that is not something they understand. But at the same time, whenever this has happened, we have been able to settle it in a way that satisfies both of them. The United States has a habit of reporting on religious freedom in various countries. On their own, they have taken upon themselves the responsibility of reporting every year on the religious freedoms of many countries. This year also, a report on religious freedoms in India was published and they pointed out several areas or several instances of concern for the other religions. But we have always told them that these are local incidents and they are reported by the press because of the free press and it is not intended to be communicated to anyone else. And reports in the media need not be taken too seriously because it should be remembered that in democracies where there is a free press, it is not unusual for media to take positions against the government itself. And those stories must be discounted should not be taken very seriously. And human rights violations which they point out sometimes the Americans, we make that point that this is political in character. And local reports and human rights violations should be taken with a pitch of salt because they like to exaggerate these things particularly abroad to get sympathy from other countries. So it appears that the process of healing the wounds has begun and all these countries seem to have understood our explanation. There was a demand for the government to apologize but that we have said that the government had nothing to do to apologize. The people themselves will be punished and that is what the government did. And that also seems to have died down. The Iranian Foreign Minister was in Delhi soon after the troubles broke out. And he seems satisfied that it happened out of ignorance and sensitivity rather than hostility or hatred. So it is obvious that the Hindu and Islamic civilizations have been living together for centuries. And their unity is particularly important at the time of the geopolitics instability on account of the pandemic and the and the futile war. So this has happened at a very unfortunate moment when the world is still not recovered from the pandemic and also the Russia-Ukraine war is raging causing disruption to the entire geopolitical situation. So this was why we did not lose any time in explaining the situation and convincing them that this was not meant to be an insult to Islam or of course not to the Prophet Muhammad. So we understand their sensitivities and we have given our explanations and perhaps the OIC, Al Qaeda, some Muslim priests somewhere may still maintain their views but at least at the government to government level there is no anxiety and they seem to have been satisfied. And there will not be any action against India, Indian interests or Indian nationals in any of these countries we are told. So in a sense the wounds are healing but we certainly should not have permitted our people to make such statements particularly when it comes to Prophet Muhammad who is held in great respect in India itself. So there is no lack of respect for the Prophet in India and it was not our intention to offend anyone but these are irresponsible individuals who have spoken out and they will be punished. So this chapter seems to be ending and we may get back to the happy relationship that we have with the Gulf countries. Thank you.