How Important Is It For India To Maintain Good Relations With Arab Countries Amidst Statement Of Nupur Sharma
New Delhi, 6th June 2022: The issue of Nupur Sharma’s objectionable remarks about Prophet Mohammad in a TV debate is raising India’s concern internationally. Many countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, one of India’s friendly countries, have condemned this statement and demanded action from India. Many countries have summoned the ambassadors of India and sought answers on this.
BJP has suspended spokesperson Nupur Sharma. In such a situation, the question arises that how important are Arab countries for India and how can their displeasure increase the concerns.
India has a trade of $189 billion with seven Gulf countries. This figure is for 2021-22. These countries include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These countries account for 18.3 percent of India’s total trade. Not only this, the amount that Indians living in these countries send to the country is 54 percent of the amount received from the total expatriate citizens. India’s relations with the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia in particular have been very good in the last few years.
Even in the UAE, the grand event of the inauguration of the Hindu temple was also held in the presence of PM Narendra Modi. In this way, apart from business relations, there have been good relations between Arab countries and India at the level of communal harmony. Lakhs of migrant laborers of India have settled in these countries, who send large sums of money to their homes.
An official of the Qatar Embassy in Delhi told Al Jazeera that in order to improve relations, it is necessary that PM Narendra Modi himself issues a statement and shrugs off these comments.
An Indian official said that if this dispute escalates, then we will have to suffer financially as well. Former Indian diplomat Vivek Katju said he was shocked by the remarks made on the prophet of Islam. He said the remarks were unwanted and against the culture in which we grew up. In our culture, abusive words are not spoken about the Prophet of any religion.
It is worth noting that Qatar had first and foremost reacted sharply to this issue. Qatar had summoned the ambassador on this issue and demanded that India should apologize.
After this, many other countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE also protested against this statement.
