Kuwait Supermarket Stops Selling Indian Products

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)?