The Modi administration in India has been caught in diplomatic tensions and crisis as the country's image in the Gulf regions has been weakening, not due to any outer elements but due to a spokesperson of Modi's party. The BJP regime has waged attempts to distance itself from the matter and though being attacked by a slew of Gulf nations, Modi's party has been witnessing a huge backing for the spokesperson's comments that further escalated the tensions. 

The flare of what has become a wildfire was torched by BJP's spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Recently, Sharma has participated in a TV debate during which she had an outrageous remark against Prophet Muhammed while speaking about the Gyanvapi Mosque, the recent religious place that the BJP had zeroed in with its illusional claim that the Mosque has Hindu God 'Shivling' inside it. Speaking in a debate, Nupur has allegedly spoken about Muhammed in a fashion that the entire Arab world had united against India. 

Her remarks were gone viral on social media and several Gulf countries have sharply reacted against India in a way that India's Ministry of External Affairs had a busy time for the past few days responding to the Gulf countries. The BJP has later suspended Nupur Sharma from the party, but for Narendra Modi, it was the greatest blow in his foreign diplomacy and the ties have taken a shocking turn.

From the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to Qatar, Prime Minister Modi has the great schooling and ordeal from the Gulf partners that India should stop its practices against Muslims. The hashtag 'Insult to Prophet Mohammed' was trending across the Gulf countries with many running a campaign of boycotting the Indian products. The Grand Mufti of Oman has called the remarks by Nupur Sharma insolent and obscene rudeness and called it a war against every Muslim. 

He called for a boycott of all Indian products and confiscation of all Indian investments in Oman. The Government of Qatar has summoned the Indian Ambassador and asked for immediate condemnation and an apology for the remarks. However, the Indian Ambassador has said that these remarks were the views of fringe elements in India and in no way reflect the views of the Government of India. Though BJP has made several controversial statements against religion several times, it is the first time that an ambassador was made to assert them as fringe elements, after the Modi regime was facing an attack from the Arab world. 

On June 5th, Nupur Sharma has published an apology on Twitter but was suspended from the BJP. Like Sharma, another BJP leader Naveen Kumar Jindal was also expelled from the party over his controversial remarks against Prophet Muhammed. On Monday- June 6, India's Ministry of External Affairs has said that the comments of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) were motivated, misleading, and mischievous to India. 

External Affairs Ministry's official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the Government of India categorically rejected OIC Secretariat's comments. The Government of India categorically rejects OIC Secretariat's unwarranted and narrow-minded comments. The Government of India accords the highest respect to all religions. In his statement, he said, "The offensive tweets and comments denigrating a religious personality were made by certain individuals. They do not, in any manner, reflect the views of the Government of India. Strong action has already been taken against these individuals by relevant bodies." However, the diplomatic heat is yet to be doused out amid escalating tensions as several countries including Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, and the Taliban's reign in Afghanistan have strongly condemned the anti-Prophet remarks. 

Who is Nupur Sharma? 

Born in New Delhi, 37-year-old Nupur Sharma is an advocate by profession. A law graduate from Delhi University, she has completed an LLM from the London School of Economics in 2011. She has been involved in politics since her college days and her political career began in 2008, when she was elected as the President of the Delhi University Students' Union and she went on to work with the BJP's Youth wing. In 2015, she has contested the Delhi assembly polls on the BJP's ticket against Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat. 

However, she has lost the elections and had been serving as BJP's official spokesperson in Delhi under the leadership of Manoj Tiwari. In 2020, she was appointed as a national spokesperson of the BJP under the leadership of JP Nadda and in two years, she has put India's diplomatic ties with the Gulf countries at stake through her alleged blasphemy. It must be noted that she was a part of BJP's student wing ABVP and she comes from an educated family with several members of the family are civil servants. 

What do critics say?

In the midst of the brewing crisis, the critics say that Narendra Modi's diplomacy would witness an adverse impact from the Gulf over the anti-Prophet statements. BBC has quoted the critics saying that the remarks from Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal reflect the deep religious polarization that the country has been witnessing over the past few years. Though the comments had triggered nationwide outrage, the BJP has played a distancing drama from them. 

The party has said, "The BJP strongly denounces insults of any religious personalities of any religion. The BJP is also against any ideology which insults or demeans any sect or religion. The BJP does not promote such people or philosophy." However, the statement from India's ruling party didn't mitigate the tensions as the unanimous anger from the Arab world was evident through the scathing responses from the Gulf countries. 

Economical implications: 

The campaign to boycott Indian products was rampant in the countries like Oman and Qatar. However, despite the fact that the diplomacy has been hard-hit by the controversial remarks, several BJP supporters had spread the Twitter trend to boycott Qatar Airways. Economically, the Arab world is the top source for India's energy and fuel imports and India's trade with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stood at $87 billion in 2020-21.  

UAE has been a major partner of India and it has also joined several Arab neighbours to strongly condemn India for the anti-Prophet remarks. Some experts believe that such nature of diplomatic crisis could have economical implications and that such controversy would risk India's diplomatic successes with the GCC. According to BBC, former diplomat Anil Trigunayat, who had served in the Gulf, has said that India was in a difficult situation and any negative fallouts can only be prevented by the sincere efforts at the leadership level. 

There were reports from the Arab world saying that some business centres in Qatar and Kuwait had begun removing Indian products from their premises and a signboard in Arabic at the Al-Ardiya Co-operative Society supermarket in Kuwait read - "We have removed Indian products." On the other hand, the experts affirm that the ties between both countries are crucial for their trade and diplomacy. Despite this unprecedented setback, India and the Gulf know their ties are essential in the region and the restoration of the normalcy of ties has to be attained between them, though it is still not in sight.