The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suspended its spokesperson Nupur Sharma after her remarks against Prophet Mohammad. The incident has sparked a debate and drew a massive backlash from Gulf countries.
Remarks against Prophet Mohammad
Nupur Sharma however unconditionally withdrew the controversial statement and said that it was never her intention to hurt anyone’s religious feelings.
It all started when BJP national spokesperson Nupur Sharma made a comment during a TV debate during an interview in Qatar where she purportedly insulted Prophet Mohammad. She made highly disrespectful remarks against the Prophet Muhammad and disrespected him.
Who is Nupur Sharma?
Nupur Sharma is the Indian ruling party BJP’s national spokesperson who now has been suspended. She is an advocate by profession and a well-known BJP leader. A law graduate from Delhi University, she completed an LLM from the London School of Economics (LSE) in 2011.
The 37-year-old has been involved in politics since her college days. She also worked as an Ambassador for Teach For India from July 2009 to June 2010.
Political career
She began her political journey in student politics when she studied at Delhi University.
In 2008, Nupur Sharma won the election as the President of the Delhi University Students’ Union from ABVP. She had also worked as a member of the National Executive in the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She has been a prominent face of the BJP held various significant posts in the party.
She contested the 2015 Delhi elections against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi seat. However, she lost the election for the seat.
Controversial remarks
The party took action against Sharma after violence erupted in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur over her remarks. More than 40 people were injured and over 1,500 people were charged in connection with the violence.
Things got worse when countries in the Gulf region – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain – and Iran strongly condemned the remarks. Qatar and Bahrain also summoned the Indian envoy and expressed their disappointment.
There were also local media reports of many superstores in the Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain removing Indian products from their shelves. Moreover, social media users are also demanding a boycott of the products.
Kuwait, however, welcomed the BJP’s decision to suspend Sharma from the party.
