BJP suspends Nupur, expels Naveen Jindal

New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday suspended one of its spokespersons and expelled another, both of whom had made derogatory comments against Prophet Mohammed and his wife that set off a global uproar, and issued a statement asserting that it "strongly denounces insult of any religious personalities of any religion."

BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma has been suspended from the party's primary membership, while Naveen Jindal has been expelled, a statement put out by the party read.

Apart from complaints that have been filed in India against the spokespersons, anger had also been building up in recent days in several Arab countries such as Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – all of which have very close ties with India and are home to millions of expatriates – over the comments and a tweet by two BJP spokespersons. The grand mufti of Oman, Sheikh Ahmad bin Hamad Al-Khalil, tweeted that the "obscene" comments of the spokesperson of India's ruling party amounted to a "war against every Muslim".