India has reacted sharply to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei listing India, alongside Gaza and Myanmar, as a country where Muslims are suffering. It dismissed his comments as “unacceptable” and “misinformed”.
In a statement on the social media platform X responding to the Iranian leader’s comments, India’s external affairs ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said: “Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others.”
In a post also on X, Ayatollah Khamanei had said Iran could not consider itself a Muslim country if it remained oblivious to the “sufferings” of Muslims in Myanmar, Gaza, India or any other place.
Senior Indian diplomats and security officials were unclear over what exactly had provoked Iran’s supreme leader to make these remarks – on Monday, the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday – at a time when the two countries are enjoying cordial political, diplomatic and commercial relations.
The two have age-old civilisational ties and Iran is one of India’s major crude oil providers; bilateral trade increased by almost 22 per centto $2.33 billion in 2022-23. Moreover, in May India signed a 10-year contract to manage and operate Iran’s Chabahar port on the Gulf of Oman, in a boost to New Delhi’s trade with Afghanistan and Central Asian republics.
But this is not the first time Ayatollah Khamenei condemned Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party-led government over discriminating against India’s minority Muslim community, which comprises 200 million, or 15 per cent, of its population of 1.4 billion. Hindus constitute some 80 per cent of India’s overall numbers.
In February 2020 Iran’s supreme leader called on the BJP government to prevent extremist Hindu mobs from attacking Muslims protesting against a controversial new Citizenship Amendment Act. Some 53 people died in the attacks, in Delhi. India’s opposition parties and domestic and international human rights organisations had deemed the act to be anti-Muslim.
Earlier, in 2019, Iran’s leader had expressed concern over the BJP administration rescinding the special constitutional provisions in the Muslim-majority disputed Himalayan state of Kashmir after nearly 70 years. This revocation had triggered months of unrest across Kashmir that included extended curfews, suspension of internet and mobile telephone services and prolonged detention of political leaders and protesters.
Tehran also criticised the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in western Gujarat state, which then was headed by Mr Modi as its chief minister. Nearly 1,200 people, mostly Muslims, died in the violence, which continued unabated for several months.
The BJP’s anti-Muslim stance emanated from the ultra-right-wing paramilitary Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) or National Volunteer Corps, that launched the party in 1980 as its political wing.
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