Why India is in damage-control mode with Arab nations

Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in CNN’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, a three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. “Modi has tried very hard to prevent his party’s domestic political agenda from spilling over and poisoning India’s relations with the Gulf states,” said Hasan Alhasan, a Bahrain-based fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies who researches Indian foreign policy in the Gulf. “The extent to which Sharma’s comments have clouded India’s relations with the Gulf states is unprecedented, and that’s of course because she is, or was, the spokesperson of the BJP.” Taneja said the Indian government has realized that a lot of religious rhetoric “has been taking place for a while and has been going unnoticed, but it will not go so anymore.” The hashtag “Anyone but the prophet, oh Modi” was trending on Twitter in all six Gulf countries, and as far away as Algeria, with residents in Muslim nations calling for a boycott of Indian products. The Gulf states are key sources of India’s oil and gas imports, and bilateral trade is over $100 billion,” said Alhasan. “I don’t think that will have a jeopardizing effect in terms of the economic or political relations because India is still an important country,” said Sager.