Updated: October 29, 2020 7:22:42 am
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said Macron was encouraging anti-Muslim sentiments and provoking Muslims; Iran and Saudi Arabia condemned the cartoons. (Abdulmonam Eassa, Pool via AP)
In a rare move, India rallied on Wednesday in support of French President Emmanuel Macron, whom Pakistan and Turkey have targeted for vigorously defending the French people’s right to freedom of expression.
New Delhi joined leading European countries in condemning the personal attacks on the French president.
On October 16, an 18-year-old Chechen refugee in France beheaded a 47-year-old school teacher, Samuel Paty, days after Paty showed cartoons of the Prophet to her students.
Condemning the murder, Macron said: “We will continue … We will defend the freedom that he taught so well and we will bring secularism.” France, said the president, “would not renounce cartoons, drawings, even if others back down.”
Read also | Pakistani Prime Minister calls on Muslim countries to make collective efforts to tackle Islamophobia
In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Macron of running an anti-Islamic agenda and said the French president needed a “mental health check.”
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said Macron was encouraging anti-Muslim sentiments and provoking Muslims; Iran and Saudi Arabia condemned the cartoons.
In an official statement, the Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday: “We strongly deplore personal attacks in unacceptable language against President Emmanuel Macron in violation of the most basic standards of international speech. We also condemn the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the life of a French teacher in a shocking way that has shocked the world. We offer our condolences to his family and the people of France.
From Explained | What explains the calls to ‘boycott France’ in the Muslim world?
“There is no justification for terrorism for any reason or under any circumstances.”
India’s statement comes a day before Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s scheduled October 29-November 4 visit to France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
While France has witnessed repeated violent incidents surrounding cartoons and vignettes that are deemed offensive, it is unusual for New Delhi to get into a controversy over religion in another country.
In January 2015, after the attack on Charlie Hebdo journalists and cartoonists, the MEA spokesperson had said “we have strongly condemned the situation”, and Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had written to her counterpart Laurent Fabius. “We are on the side of those who condemn this barbaric incident,” the spokesman had said.
In early March 2006, controversy over the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet in a Danish newspaper had forced the cancellation of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen’s scheduled six-day visit to India. Following widespread protests over the cartoons, New Delhi had conveyed to Copenhagen that this was not the “optimal time” for the visit.
From Explained | France, Emmanuel Macron and Islam
New Delhi has close strategic ties with France, especially on issues of mutual concern, from the fight against terrorism to defense and nuclear to space. Prime Minister Narendra Modi shares a personal relationship with President Macron, who had invited the prime minister to the G-7 leaders’ summit in Biarritz last year.
France has been hugely supportive of India at the UN Security Council on Kashmir and Pakistani-sponsored terrorism, among other issues. The two countries have close cooperation on climate change and have formed the International Solar Alliance.
Following Wednesday’s MEA statement, French Ambassador to India Emmanuel Lenain posted on Twitter: Thank you @MEAIndia. France and India can always count on each other in the fight against terrorism ”.
India’s vocal support for Macron could also have been influenced by the fact that the impeachment against the president has been led by Turkey and Pakistan, two countries that have repeatedly targeted India for Jammu and Kashmir and alleged human rights violations.
European leaders have rallied around Macron and criticized attacks against him, particularly from Turkey.
Steffen Seibert, spokesperson for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has said: “These are defamatory comments that are completely unacceptable, especially in the context of the horrific murder of French professor Samuel Paty by an Islamist fanatic.”
Read also | France Muhammad Cartoon Row: What You Need To Know
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte tweeted: “President Erdogan’s words directed at President Emmanuel Macron are unacceptable,” adding that the Netherlands is “in favor of freedom of expression and against extremism and radicalism.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted: “Personal insults do not help the positive agenda that the EU wants to have with Turkey, but it pushes solutions further.”
Shringla’s target countries France, Germany and the United Kingdom are strategic partners for New Delhi and nations with which India has close and well-established relationships.
Shringla will review bilateral relations and discuss matters of mutual concern and share India’s perspectives with his counterparts and other key stakeholders. You will also interact with business people, academics, intellectuals and people from the media in these three countries. It will discuss international cooperation to deal with the current pandemic and its consequences.
“India’s relations with France, Germany and the United Kingdom are based on shared democratic values and informed by a common interest in issues such as sustainable development and climate change. India has very important commercial and commercial links and large investment flows with these countries. India also works closely with these countries on multilateral and plurilateral platforms on various issues, ”the MEA said.
“India’s priorities will be discussed, such as strong and reformed multilateralism, its expanded multilateral and plurilateral commitments, including its upcoming non-permanent tenure on the United Nations Security Council, and its commitment to a free, open Indo-Pacific. and inclusive, “he said. .
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
.
