Countries which expressed concern knew…: Jaishankar on Prophet row

External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Saturday once again drew a line between the government’s stand and the controversial statements of former BJP functionaries Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal and said sensibilities and sensitivities of people were impacted.

Refusing to see the issue of other countries raising the issue of remarks against the Prophet as ‘lecturing’, Jaishankar said it was not a lecture and more of an articulation of sensibilities and sensitivities being affected. “I am also a little sensitive to being lectured. But I would not take this issue as a lecture. I think this was an issue where the sensibilities and the sensitivities of people were impacted. So they were articulating that,” Jaishankar said.

And the countries that raised the issue with New Delhi were not only in Gulf, some countries in Southeast Asia also reacted to the issue, the foreign minister said at CNN-News18’s Townhall. “The countries not just in the Gulf, I would say even in southeast Asia some countries, who had concerns do appreciate that this was not the position of the government,” Jaishankar said.

“They (the countries that expressed concern) deal with us they know what we are about… they know that these are not our views,” he said.

“There will be people who will fish in troubled waters. International relations is a very competitive game which is not played by Queensberry rules. There will be people who will try to get most of it,” the external affairs minister said without naming any country.

Several Muslim-majority countries including Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Afghanistan, Indonesia, the USE, the Maldives, Jordan, Bahrain, and Libya raised the comments made about the Prophet with New Delhi while the government made it clear that ‘fringe’ element Nupur Sharma and Naveen Jindal’s opinions did not reflect the stand of the government.