Following huge backlash from the United Arab Emirates around tweets that vilified Muslims and blamed them ‘spreading’ novel coronavirus, the Indian Ambassador to UAE, Pavan Kapoor tweeted that the two countries share values of non-discrimination on any grounds.
Sharing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tweet about brotherhood and unity, Pavan Kumar said, “India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this.”
India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this. https://t.co/8Ui6L9EKpc
— Amb Pavan Kapoor (@AmbKapoor) April 20, 2020
Last week, an Indian citizen based in the UAE had posted anti-Muslim tweets allegedly calling Tablighi Jamaat members as ‘radical Islamic terrorists’. He had also reportedly stated how Hindus were targeted in the Middle East and that the region is what it is today because of Hindus who built it up from scratch, as per a report. However, several Arab leaders and intellectuals have been condemning the derogatory comments about the Muslim community being made and shared by many Indian Twitter users, many of them supporters of the ruling BJP.
The envoy’s tweets come a day after Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi had tweeted that coronavirus does not see race, religion or caste.
“COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood. We are in this together COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking. Our response and conduct thereafter should attach primacy to unity and brotherhood. We are in this together,” read the Prime Minister’s tweet.
The Prime Minister’s tweet came after the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the federation of 57 Muslim nations, on Sunday had condemned "the unrelenting vicious Islamophobic campaign in India maligning Muslims for the spread of COVID-19 as well as their negative profiling in media subjecting them to discrimination and violence with impunity."
In another tweet, IPHRC urged the Indian government to take "urgent steps to stop the growing tide of Islamophobia in India and protect the rights of its persecuted Muslim minority" as per its obligations under international human rights law. The tweets were liked and retweeted by hundreds of users.
On Sunday, a 2015 tweet by BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on Arab women had also created a massive controversy, after which the MP deleted the tweet.