Protests in India: China hopes India will justly resolve situation

BEIJING: India will justly resolve the situation emerged after BJP leaders’ blasphemous remarks, which stirred strong reaction among Indian Muslims and Islamic countries.It was stated by spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry Wang Wenbin on Monday during his regular briefing.

Commenting on Bhartia Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s sacrilegious remarks, Wang Wenbin said: “We have noted relevant reports and hope that the relevant situation can be properly resolved.”

He said that China had always maintained that different civilizations and different religions should respect each other and live on an equal footing.

“We should abandon arrogance and prejudice, deepen our understanding of the differences between our own civilisation and other civilisations, and promote exchanges, dialogue and harmonious coexistence among different civilisations,” he added.

The Muslims countries including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Oman, Indonesia, Iraq, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Jordan, Libya and Bahrain have condemned the remarks.

Many Muslim countries’ foreign offices also summoned the Indian envoys to register their protest besides issuing strongly worded statements. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also issued a strongly worded statement against blasphemous remarks by Indian leaders.

In a statement, Cheng Xizhong, Visiting Professor of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, said that massive Muslim demonstrations across India, demanding arrest and punishment of the two members of BJP for using blasphemous remarks reflected not only the aspirations of the vast Muslim community in India, but also the aspirations of the entire Muslim world. He added that Indian authorities should respond positively.

However, the Indian authorities have resorted to brutal measures against the unarmed protesting Muslims and used the security forces to suppress them.The international community should pay close attention to the atrocities committed by the Indian authorities and strongly condemn the disproportional use of security forces on Indian Muslim protesters, he added.

He said that India should immediately shun its Hindutva policies and stop targeting its minorities, hurting their religious sentiments and put an end to rising incidents of violence and spreading of hate against Indian minorities, especially Muslims.Otherwise, the worsening ethnic contradictions and religious conflicts in India will lead to the final division of the country, he added.