India is embroiled in a diplomatic crisis over provocative remarks regarding the Prophet Muhammad by a top official from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – Nupur Sharma.
Nupur Sharma’s comments, which she delivered in a TV discussion roughly ten days ago, infuriated Indian Muslims and angered more than a dozen Islamic countries.
Ms Sharma was suspended from the BJP on Sunday. Naveen Kumar Jindal, the party’s Delhi media section chairman, was also sacked for tweeting a screenshot of her abusive remark.
The BJP declared that it is “against any ideology that degrades or demeans any sect or faith” and “does not endorse such persons or thought.”
To appease enraged Islamic countries, Indian officials have stated that the remarks do not reflect the government’s position and are the “opinions of fringe individuals.”
Ms Sharma, though, is not a fringe figure, as many have pointed out.
Who is Nupur Sharma?
The 37-year-old lawyer was an “official BJP spokesman” who appeared night after night on TV debates to advocate and defend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government until she was fired.
Nupur Sharma, a law student at Delhi University, began her political career in 2008 when she was elected president of the students’ union as a candidate of the Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
When she returned to India in 2011 after completing her master’s degree in international business law at the London School of Economics, her political career took off.
Her ability to argue and present her point of view in English and Hindi earned her a spot on the BJP’s media committee for the Delhi assembly elections in 2013.
When fresh elections were scheduled two years later, she was the BJP’s candidate against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Although no one anticipated her to win, her enthusiastic campaign catapulted her into the spotlight: she was named an official spokesman for the BJP in Delhi. In 2020, she was promoted to “national spokesperson” for the party.
Offensive Comments
Protesters have called for Nupur Sharma, the BJP’s spokeswoman, to be arrested for making “blasphemous remarks.”
Ms Sharma has become a recognisable face to Indian television viewers. On most evenings, she may be seen and heard yelling at and heckling her political opponents, even calling them names.
She branded a panellist “a bloody hypocrite and a liar”. She instructed him to “shut up” in a brief video posted widely by her followers on Twitter lately.
After publishing the Twitter video, her admirers hailed her, calling her “a lioness, and a powerful and bold fighter,” after publishing the Twitter video. She has more than half a million followers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ms Sharma said she was removing her words “unconditionally” in a statement following her dismissal. Still, she tried to excuse them by claiming they were in response to “constant abuse and contempt against the Hindu god Shiva.”
During a debate over the Gyanvapi mosque dispute, she made some derogatory remarks.
Hindus allege that the mosque in Varanasi was built on the ruins of a large 16th century Hindu sanctuary, which was demolished in 1669 by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Some are now requesting permission to pray within the mosque complex from a court.
According to the petitioners, a video-recorded assessment of the mosque showed a stone shaft that they allege is a Shivalinga, Shiva’s emblem. On the other hand, the mosque’s administration argues that it is a water fountain.
The case is being tried in court, but the charges and counter-claims are being aired on TV channels incessantly, and Ms Sharma has been a prominent supporter of Hindu nationalism.
She seems to have bitten off more than she could chew on May 27 when she made harsh statements against Prophet Muhammad.
In 2015, Nupur Sharma ran for the Delhi Assembly.
She tweeted to Delhi police after journalist and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair posted a video of her outburst on Twitter, stating she was being “bombarded with rape, murder, and beheading threats on my sister, mother, father, and myself.”
Mr Zubair was accused of “peddling a false story to vitiate the environment, generate communal dissension, and cause communal and targeted hatred towards myself and my family,” she said.
She mentioned Prime Minister Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and BJP President JP Nadda.
“The prime minister’s office, the home ministry, and the party president’s office were rallying behind me,” she told a sympathetic interviewer three days later.
Last Friday, though, she ran into difficulty when a Muslim protest over her statements in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, turned violent.
The state, governed by conservative Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath, retaliated harshly against the demonstrators, filing hundreds of complaints and detaining scores of Muslims.
Relations with Islamic Countries
But the BJP couldn’t take it any longer, especially when nations in the Middle East condemned her comments, summoning Indian diplomats in Kuwait, Iran, and Qatar and issuing a forceful statement. Even the United Arab Emirates, whose relations with India have greatly improved in recent years, has condemned the remarks.
Calls for Ms Sharma to be imprisoned for her “blasphemous words” have become louder in recent days, and police in numerous opposition-ruled states have begun investigations against her.
The Delhi Police beefed up her protection on Tuesday, citing a terrorist group’s threat to her life.
But, since her suspension, support for the embattled former BJP spokeswoman has grown, with hashtags like #ISupportNupurSharma and #TakeBackNupurSharma trending every day on social media and tens of thousands of people applauding her.
Some critics also point out that many prominent Indian politicians have gotten away with making racist remarks in the past and that Ms Sharma’s political career may not be ended just yet.
