Kuwaiti MPs demand ban on entry of BJP members

Parliamentarians write letter to speaker about atrocities being committed in India against the Muslim minority


News Desk February 20, 2022
Supporters of India ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wave their party flags in Kolkata, India, April 17, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

A group of powerful Kuwaiti parliamentarians had demanded of the government of Kuwait to put an immediate ban on the entry of any member of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of India into Kuwait.

The eleven parliamentarians wrote a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly about atrocities being committed by the ruling BJP in India against the Muslim minority.

In a tweet on the social media platform Twitter, they said “We can’t sit back and watch Muslim girls being publicly persecuted they said. Time for the Ummah to unite.” They said female Muslim students were being stopped from entering educational institutions in Hijab.

Kuwaiti activists gathered in Irada Square in Kuwait City last week to support Muslim women in India following a ban on hijab at schools and colleges in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

Read 'Only at appropriate time': India's SC refuses to hear hijab ban plea

The women’s wing of the Islamic Constitutional Movement also staged a protest at the Green Island’s parking in front of the Indian embassy in Kuwait in support of Muslim women in India following the ban on hijab in schools.

A day ago, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that “almost half” of the parliamentarians in India's Lok Sabha — the lower house of parliament — have criminal charges against them.

“Nehru's India has become one where ... almost half the MPs in the Lok Sabha have criminal charges pending against them, including charges of rape and murder,” Loong said.

Loong made the comment in Singapore's parliament on Wednesday during a debate about accusations of lying levelled at a member of the opposition. He did add, however, that many of the charges were politically motivated.

Indian media reported that Singapore's ambassador had been summoned to the foreign ministry to explain. The Indian ministry declined to comment but an official there criticised what the Singapore leader said.

"The remarks by the prime minister of Singapore were uncalled for," said the official, who declined to be identified. "We have taken up the matter with the Singaporean side." Loong's office said it had nothing to add.

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