India faces backlash over BJP's 'Islamophobic' remarks

New Delhi/Kuwait City: A Kuwaiti supermarket pulled Indian products from its shelves even as Iran became the latest Middle Eastern country to summon the Indian ambassador as a row grew on Monday over a BJP 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".

Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries in the region, as well as the influential Al-Azhar University in Cairo, have condemned the remarks by a spokeswoman for the BJP, who has since been suspended.

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 AFP. An official at the chain said a company-wide boycott was being considered.

India on Monday hit out at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for its criticism of the country in the wake of the alleged derogatory remarks made against Prophet Mohammed by two BJP functionaries.

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India categorically rejects the OIC Secretariat's "unwarranted and narrow-minded comments" and asserted that New Delhi accords the highest respect to all religions.

"The offensive tweets and comments denigrating a religious personality were made by certain individuals. They do not, in any manner, reflect the views of the Government of India," Bagchi said.

Saudi Arabia on Monday joined Qatar, Iran and Kuwait to express its condemnation of the controversial remarks of a BJP leader against Prophet Mohammed and called for "respect for beliefs and religions."

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed its condemnation and denunciation of the statements made by the BJP spokesperson, saying it insulted Prophet Mohammed.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday also condemned the "hurtful" remarks against the prophet of Islam.

Seeking to defuse a diplomatic row, spokespersons of the Indian Embassy in Qatar and Kuwait said that the ambassadors "conveyed that the tweets do not, in any manner, reflect the views of the Government of India. These are the views of fringe elements."

The controversial remarks also sparked a Twitter trend in the Arab world calling for a boycott of Indian products.

Hitting out at the BJP over the controversial remarks made by its functionaries against Prophet Mohammed, the Congress on Monday accused it of defaming India at the international level and said it was unacceptable that the nation has to apologise for its mistakes.

The Congress also demanded the arrest of the two BJP functionaries after international outrage over their offensive comments against the Prophet.

The BJP on Sunday suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled the party's Delhi unit media head Naveen Jindal for their controversial remarks following widespread anger in several Gulf countries.

The Congress charged that the BJP's anti-social elements are thrusting the nation into the fire of hatred and the country is being defamed internationally.

"Such anti-social elements of the BJP be arrested immediately," the Congress demanded.