BJP MP Tejasvi Surya was forced to delete his sexual slurs insulting Arab women following a strong backlash from Arab nationals including UAE Princess Hend Al Qassimi.
Arab thinkers from across the GCC countries are calling for action against him for vile remarks against Muslims and Arab women in particular.
His five-year-old tweet resurfaced at a time when influential thinkers and members of the UAE royal family are fearlessly reacting to the growing Islamophobia in UAE and other Arab countries after the outbreak of coronavirus.
I’ve decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
With age, we realize how hate hurts only those that feel it. We need to shed our old grudges, & accept that differences will always exist. We’re not God to judge & decide who gets to live, succeed or simply be. pic.twitter.com/VVflfGRqGY— Hend F Q (@LadyVelvet_HFQ) April 20, 2020
Several Indian nationals are being caught and punished for inciting religious intolerance and spewing hate against Muslims.
Surya tweeted on 23 March that year, “95 per cent Arab women never had orgasms in the last few hundred years: Tarek Fatah.”
Princess Hend Al Qasssimi, who is already spearheading a movement to tackle rising Islamophobia in UAE, issued a strict warning to the Indian government over the ridiculous remarks.
The Indian Parliament’s deletion of this comment will not forget us of the heinous insult from it..We demand urgent and immediate accountability from Parliament and the government.We, the Arab Muslim women, are generational educators and directors of global competencies.#india pic.twitter.com/9jrGhQZgP3
— منى عبدالله الأربش Mona Alarbash (@MonaAlarbash) April 20, 2020
Sharjah royal family member Princess Hend Al Qassimi said that the “Scorn and ridicule will not go unnoticed”.
“I knew India, the country of Gandhi, a country which suffered enough. The whole world is on its nerves with COVID-19, but the hate should stop.”
She said none of the Indian national works here for free. They work and are paid accordingly.
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Following her, several human rights activists from Kuwait and UAE tagged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in their tweets demanding action against Tejasvi Surya.
However, among the first to slam Surya for his tweet was a UAE businesswoman Noora AlGhurair, who said she, “Pitied the upbringing that has taught him to disrespect women”. She warned him not to travel Arab lands if he is ever bestowed a foreign ministry because he is not welcome here.
Mejbel Al Sharika, a Kuwait-based lawyer and Director of International Human rights asked Twitter to suspend his account because his racial slurs have ‘badly wounded’ their sentiments.
Another, Kuwait-based intellectual demanded PM Modi cancel Tejasvi Surya’s membership of parliament.