An article in Foreign Policy magazine focused on what he considered "the reason for the Gulf states to back away from India," stressing that Islamophobia spoils diplomatic gains for New Delhi in the Middle East.
The article was written by researchers Sumit Ganguly, professor of political science at Indiana University in Bloomington, and Nicholas Bellrill, professor of international relations at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University.
The researchers pointed out that over the past several years, especially under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has made great strides in its relations with the Arab Gulf states, and has achieved these gains while maintaining friendly relations with two major rivals in the region, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
And they mentioned that these gains for a blatant Hindu nationalist government were not a simple achievement, especially since Gulf countries like the Emirates were a historical partner to India's archrival Pakistan.
The researchers added that the relations that New Delhi forged very carefully over the past five years, relying on the efforts of the previous government, are now in great danger after the local developments targeting two hundred million Muslims began to break up this diplomatic achievement of India.
Although official reports indicate that the outbreak of the Coronavirus has had a limited impact on the population of India, the Muslim community there has faced online and physical attacks during this crisis, arguing that some Muslims were a major source of infection in the country.
Hate speech
The researchers believe that the blatant abuse of Muslim societies in India is now endangering the carefully designed diplomatic approach in New Delhi to the Middle East at risk, especially towards the Gulf states.
The researchers noted expressions of concern about the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's treatment of Indian Muslims from all parts of the Islamic world, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which urged India to take urgent steps to protect the rights of the Muslim minority.
They considered this latest criticism particularly damaging to New Delhi, as India has actively worked to repair its problematic relations with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, commenting that this turn of events should be a source of concern for the Modi government.
Ganguli and Bellaryl pointed out that criticism of prominent Arab commentators prompted India to launch a campaign to contain the damage, in which the embassies of India in the Gulf states and the world urged their nationals to remain vigilant against statements that might spark religious controversy.
Their article concluded that at the present time it seems that the Indian emergency diplomacy succeeded, as most of the Gulf countries welcomed the clarifications provided by New Delhi, and expressed their desire to maintain and deepen the friendly relations. But the question is: Is India able to control the hate speech it seems to have unleashed, not only to calm things down locally but also to prevent further diplomatic embarrassment?
And if not, among the many possible repercussions is that it threatens to tear the fabric of its tightly knit ties with the Gulf states.