Prophet Remarks Row: S Jaishankar said sensitivities and people’s sensibilities were affected (File)
New Delhi:
Days after several countries expressed outrage over controversial comments about the Prophet Mohammed by the two now-deleted BJP officials, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that people’s sensitivities and sensitivities were affected, which the countries expressed, but they appreciated that this was not the government’s position.
He claimed that what was said was not the BJP’s position and that the party had made it “very clear in very strong terms”, and took action.
“The countries not only in the Gulf, I would even say that some countries in Southeast Asia, who were concerned, realize that this was not the government’s position,” Jaishankar said when asked about the controversy at a town hall organized by DailyExpertNews-News18.
“They (the countries that have expressed concern) deal with us, they know what we are talking about… they know that these are not our views,” he said.
Once the party has clarified its position, our expectation is that people will understand, Mr Jaishankar said.
“There will be people who will be fishing in murky waters. International relations is a very competitive game that is not played by the Queensberry rules. There will be people who will try to get the most,” the foreign minister said without to call a country. †
“We have to commit, we have to put forward our point of view and we are doing it. Even in the last few days you can see that people understand what the true picture is in India,” he claimed.
When asked why India should be lectured by countries that are not a patchwork of it democratically, the minister said he does not view the whole issue that way.
“I’m also a bit sensitive to lectures. But I wouldn’t consider this issue as a lecture. I think this was an issue where people’s sensitivities and sensitivities were affected. So they articulated that,” Mr. Jaishankar said.
He said it should be made very clear what we stand for and the party has done that.
Several Muslim-majority countries had expressed outrage and condemnation over the controversial comments about the Prophet.
The BJP had suspended its national spokesman Nupur Sharma and expelled its media head Naveen Kumar Jindal in Delhi after their controversial remarks.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
