The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has come under the fire for certain derogatory comments made by its spokespersons that have been vehemently condemned by various Arab countries.
A barrage of opinions on the controversy has flooded Twitter since Qatar, Iran, and Kuwait demanded an apology for BJP leaders Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal's statements against Prophet Mohammed.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader KT Rama Rao has said, "It is BJP that should apologise; not India as a Nation."
Several other Opposition leaders have also criticised the BJP for its handling of the issue at the international level, after the party-led central government maintained that the comments made by the BJP spokespersons were merely the "views of fringe elements."
Congress leaders Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh, and Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi are among those who have tweeted their disapproval.
On Sunday, the BJP had suspended spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled Naveen Jindal from party's primary membership in a bid to defuse a row over the comments made by Sharma against Prophet Muhammad, during a debate on a television channel. When the controversy snowballed, Jindal posted a controversial tweet about the Prophet, which he deleted after the outrage.
'Depravity of Our Foreign Policy': Some Twitterati Slam BJP for 'Caring' About Qatar, Kuwait
On the other hand, some others on Twitter have censured the BJP for paying heed to the censure of the Arab countries, and have slammed the latter's intervention.
#BoycottQatarAirways trended on the micro-blogging platform as a section of users demanded a boycott on the airline for Qatar's criticism of the statements made by Indian leaders.
Meanwhile, others on Twitter have also pointed out that the reaction of the Gulf nations has been selective and singularly targets India.
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