May 1: India on Thursday called as "propaganda" certain social media posts from the Arab world alleging harassment of Muslims in several parts of the country in the name of containing the spread of coronavirus.
Strongly rebutting the charges, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said the Gulf countries are deeply committed to friendly relations with India and they are even seeking bilateral talks on the post-COVID-19 economic recovery.
Talking about India's close and traditional ties with the Arab countries, he said New Delhi is ensuring uninterrupted supply of food and essential commodities to the region during Ramzan as part of its deep-rooted friendship.
Srivastava said the countries in the region do not support any interference in India's internal affairs.
"Much of what you see is propaganda by interested parties. Stray tweets can not be used to characterise our bilateral ties with these countries. The real picture of these relations is very much different," he said during an online media briefing.
There has been a wave of angry reactions on Twitter by leading citizens and rights activists from various Arab countries following allegations that Muslims are being blamed for spreading COVID-19 in several parts of India.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, a powerful bloc of 57 countries, recently accused India of "Islamophobia". India rejected the charges as regrettable.
"We have been making special efforts to ensure uninterrupted supply of food and essential commodities which are required during the Ramzan period in these countries, and this is something which has been greatly appreciated. These countries also want a priority discussion with India on the post-COVID-19 economic recovery," Srivastava said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar have been in regular touch with their counterparts from the region in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
"In these discussions, there have been requests for sending medicines and medical teams to these countries. We already deployed a Rapid Response Team in Kuwait. There is also a request to send doctors and nurses from India," said Srivastava.
"What comes out clearly is that these countries are deeply committed to friendly relations with India. They also do not support any interference in internal matters of India. It is, therefore, important that the friendly and cooperative nature of our relations is accurately recognised and the misuse of social media is not given credence," he added.
Asked about reports of an order issued by Oman's Finance Ministry asking all state-owned companies to replace foreign workers with qualified local Omanis, Srivastava said it is not aimed at Indians working in the Gulf nation.
"The policy is a decades-old one and not specific to India. It does not target the Indians in any way," he said.
There have been apprehensions that the order will render thousands of Indians working in state-run firms in Oman jobless.
"They greatly value relationship with India. Government of Oman is taking special care of Indians which included free testing for coronavirus, its treatment, providing food," the MEA spokesperson said.
Oman government is also extending certain categories of visas of Indians.
Srivastava said India has been in touch with its friends and partners across the world as part of the collaborative approach to dealing with the pandemic.
Comments
Hindu brother must think who is GOD and what is truth...most politician are not good hindus they divide people in the name of religion and make innocent people fight each other...who will get benifit..only they..
Naik clearely says that there is no image of GOD, even idol
if hindu brother read veda like we read quran in madras, then they will understand the clear concept of GOD.
no religion book will tell kill another human beign...do you think god himself create human and want to be killer by other...this is stong point..what ever the religion every human is create by GOD and he want us to obey his comendment and live in peace...respect each other
some marons exist in all religion thta does not means all religion people are same.
if we take some example,
hijbul mujeedeen, jaise muhammed ect all kept the name which is related to islam religion and make crime on innocen people
similarly ram sane, bajranga dal, sive sane etc all keept the name which is related to Hindu religion and hide there crime on humanity when they are in trouble.
we human beign must understand that our life is very small say max 90 years,...what we done in this world will be ladder for our sucess after death...we should do good to any human being.
All religious book says same thing
Give maximum benifit to mankind it may be even small work atleast smile...GOD will give mercy on the day of judgement and he loves this kind of person
People should really look what he says , I never found any hate speech from Zakir naik... When we just depend on the lies of this govt. We all are becoming like the donkies who just carry the load of knowledge without knowing that it is carrying loads of knowledge but unable to read... As a Human being We should learn our own scriptures and then make stand if Zakir is telling the TRUTH or LIAR are telling the TRUTH.
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