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Why did the government act the way it did in the Nupur Sharma episode

Several party supporters have argued that the party leadership should have stood by Nupur and her remarks even in the face of the outrage from the Arab world.

Former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma came under a lot of criticism, received several death threats, and eventually got suspended from her party after she quoted hadiths and upset a lot of Islamists in the process who called it ‘blasphemy’. During a debate on the Times Now channel on the discovery of Shivling inside the disputed Gyanvapi structure, responding to the insults of Shivling, Nupur asked what will happen if she insults other religions the way Shivling and Hinduism have been mocked in the past few weeks.

She did not even have to do it, just asking this ‘what if’ question led to widespread outrage in India and abroad. It almost created even a diplomatic crisis as Indian allies in Gulf also took note of Nupur’s comments and registered their unhappiness over the ‘blasphemous’ comments by Nupur. Following the outrage, BJP suspended Nupur Sharma from the party’s primary membership and issued a statement denouncing ‘offensive remarks’ against any religious figure.

BJP supporters left disappointed with the decision to suspend Nupur Sharma

Following BJP’s decision to suspend Nupur Sharma, the party leadership including Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been getting a lot of flak from the party’s supporters. Several party supporters have argued that the party leadership should have stood by Nupur and her remarks even in the face of the outrage from the Arab world.

The decision to suspend Nupur was seen by many as the party’s betrayal of its supporters. OpIndia’s chief editor, Nupur Sharma (who has been tragicomically confused with the former BJP spokesperson in the past few days) also penned an editorial expressing her disappointment with the BJP over the move.

Among all this, the government has been tight-lipped over the incident and hasn’t issued any statement after suspending Nupur. There has been no formal briefing by the party either explaining in detail why the step was taken, which came after the party was seen standing by Nupur Sharma initially. This has led to a lot of murmurs and rumors about the reason the party and the government acted this way.

Making sense of the government’s stand

Among all the criticism, there have been some voices of support for the decision by the BJP and the Indian government. US-based lawyer Kartikeya Tanna argued in his Firstpost column that the decision to suspend Nupur was indeed a rational one by the BJP.

Tanna argues that since Nupur Sharma’s comments are most likely punishable under India’s own laws (multiple FIRs have been registered against Nupur since her comments), India couldn’t have spoiled its hard-earned relationship with West Asia over it. Tanna also highlighted that it is BJP’s own motto to put the nation first and the individual last, so if India’s best interests are served by suspending an individual, that party would always choose to do that.

Strong India-GCC ties over the last 8 years

During the 8 years of the Modi government, Indian ties with the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, namely Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait, have grown by leaps and bounds. The GCC countries have stood by India despite the best efforts of Pakistan to instigate these Islamic nations against India. Even when India passed Citizenship Amendment Act or removed article 370 in Kashmir, they supported the Indian stand despite Pakistan’s best efforts to get them to criticize India.

Oil has always been an essential commodity and in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, even more so. India relies on GCC countries for most of its oil and gas supply, and can’t afford to deliberately offend them. All these GCC countries were upset at Nupur’s remarks, and most of them officially registered their unhappiness over Nupur’s remarks.

Then there is the question of millions of Indians working in the Gulf. Indians are the largest expatriate group in the GCC and their jobs and safety couldn’t be put at risk by the government over one individual’s comments. Even though a Gulf without Indians is hard to imagine, but even if there is 0.01% risk that Indians abroad would suffer over an individual’s comments in India then is it really a risk worth taking?

Last but not the least, there are over 200 million Muslims in India. Narendra Modi is as much their Prime Minister as he is of the rest of the population. Nupur Sharma was not making those comments in her personal capacity, but as a representative of the BJP and in turn the government. Can government keep a spokesperson who offends over 200 million people even if it was in retaliation to offensive comments from others?

It must not have been an easy decision for BJP, knowing fully well that their supporters would be disappointed by it, but then, governance isn’t easy and full of such difficult decisions. In the absence of any official statement from the government explaining the rationale behind the decision to suspend Nupur, speculation is rife about the government’s reasons. Hopefully, once tempers settle down and everyone has cooled down, someone from the government will explain why exactly did they take this decision at an appropriate forum.

Ayodhra Ram Mandir special coverage by OpIndia

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OpIndia Staff
OpIndia Staffhttps://www.opindia.com
Staff reporter at OpIndia

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