Kuwait Supermarket Stops Selling Indian Products – Free PDF Download

What has happened?

• A Kuwaiti supermarket pulled Indian products from its shelves and Iran became the latest Middle Eastern country to summon the Indian ambassador, As a row grew on Monday over a ruling party official’s remarks about the Prophet Mohammed.

• Workers at the Al-Ardiya Co-Operative Society store piled Indian tea and other products into trolleys in a protest against comments denounced as “Islamophobic”.

• Comments by Nupur Sharma describing the prophet Mohammed’s relationship with his youngest wife have sparked furore among Muslims.

Indian products covered with plastics

• At the supermarket just outside Kuwait City, sacks of rice and shelves of spices and chilies were covered with plastic sheets.
• Printed signs in Arabic read: “We have removed Indian products”.
• “We, as a Kuwaiti Muslim people, do not accept insulting the Prophet,” Nasser Al-Mutairi, CEO of the store, told.
• An official at the chain said a company-wide boycott was being considered.

• There have been sharp reactions from Muslim countries against controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad by (former) spokespersons of the ruling BJP Nupur Sharma
• and Naveen Kumar Jindal.
• Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Jordan are some of the new countries that have officially registered their protest.
• At the same time, Maldives, a country very close to India, has also lodged its protest on the controversial remarks against Prophet Mohammad.

Why govt swung into action after 10 days?

• There are multiple reasons why the govt swung into action after the outrage in the Gulf, and the external affairs ministry had to issue statements on the comments
• by a political party’s leaders.
• Hundreds of thousands of Indians work in the Gulf and their contribution to the Indian economy is significant through remittances.

Indians

• Muslim countries in West Asia are home to nearly 1 crore Indians.
• Indian residents in these countries are not local citizens and can be deported.
• Indians own some of the largest retail stores and restaurants in these countries.
• Boycott of Indian-owned businesses can make many such businesses unviable.

• The safety of Indians and their businesses becomes of paramount importance for the government if the situation takes a turn for the worse over comments made by “some fringe elements”, as the government described it.
• India has invested a lot in diplomacy to improve its relations with the Gulf countries over the past few years through deepened cultural contacts.

money

• Remittances received by India for 2020-21 is estimated at $83 billion.
• About 53% of this came from just five Gulf countries – the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.
• Though the four southern states – Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh – along with Maharashtra are the top receivers (almost 59%) of the remittances.
• These remittances play a huge part in the Indian economy in driving private consumption pattern – a significant contributor to the annual economic growth.

Oil & gas

• Petroleum minister Hardeep Puri told Parliament in March that India requires a total of 5 million barrels of oil per day and that 60% of it comes from the Gulf.
• Oil is not just a traffic necessity in India, it is linked to strategic security of the country.
• This explains why India has been sensitive to the emotive issues that drive the Gulf countries.

exports

• The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are among the top trading partners of India.
• The UAE is currently India’s second-largest export destination after the US, and the third-largest trading partner.
• The bilateral trade in 2021-22 stood at $72.87 billion, of which India’s exports were worth $28.40 billion.
• In February this year, India signed the CEPA – the first free trade agreement finalised by the Narendra Modi government since it came to power in 2014- with an aim to increase the bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2026.

Gulf needs India too

• Airlines from the Gulf have emerged as major players in the aviation sector making the region a sort of flying hub.
• Not long ago, a tiff was seen between the American airlines and the Gulf-based airlines in 2015 – by the time the Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways had begun collectively operating more international flights out of India.
• The oil fields, the construction industry, the hospitality sector – nurses, domestic helps – workers, labourers, technicians and drivers have a large presence of the Indian workforce in the Gulf, which can’t sustain without these low-cost workers.
• Then there is that soft power of the Indian rupee, which for a very long time could be used as the local currency in much of the Gulf after the British introduced it to the region.
• Later, the Gulf rupee and Haj rupee were introduced. Both are now withdrawn and valued as prized collections.
• The Indian rupee could still be used for shopping at the Dubai airport.
• With lakhs of Indians travelling to the Gulf countries, Indian rupees’ soft power is still a major force in India’s economic ties with the Gulf.
• The Gulf definitely needs Indian money and people as much as India needs its oil and gas.
• Besides, the Gulf countries, which import about 85% of their food and 93% of cereals, heavily depend on imports from India, particularly of rice, buffalo meat, spices, marine products, fresh fruits and vegetables and sugar.

conclusion

• Ironically, none of the countries outraged at BJP spokespersons’ comments are examples of religious or social tolerance.
• They have been blind to China’s continued repression of Uyghur Muslims and crushing of Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• Similarly, Organisation of Islamic Countries refuses to accept India as a member despite India being home to the world’s third-largest Muslim population.

Q)Which among the following countries does not share boundary with Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC)?

1. Lebanon
2. Iraq
3. Jordan
4. Yemen

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