NEW DELHI: The row over the derogatory remarks against Prophet Mohammad, made by suspended BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled spokesperson Naveen Jindal, damaged India’s reputation in the sense that “India has been projected or some disinformation has been spread against the country which is far from the reality”, said NSA Ajit Doval. He also said India is not going to beg with Pakistan for peace, nor will it tolerate transgression by China.
The remarks had led to a furore in the Gulf with India forced to launch a major diplomatic outreach to convince the countries in the region that the controversial remarks did not reflect the views of the Indian government.
“Probably there is a need for us to engage them and talk to them and convince them. And you will find that wherever we have gone, wherever we have engaged with the concerned people, both outside and inside, we have been able to convince them. When people get emotionally aroused, their behaviour is a little disproportionate,” the National Security Adviser told news agency ANI.
He had been earlier quoted as saying by the Iranian government that Sharma and Jindal will be given exemplary punishment. Iran, however, later deleted its readout of the conversation Doval had with the Iranian foreign minister. He also said post 2019, mood of the people has changed.
“They are not in favour of Pakistan and terrorism any more. Where is Hurriyat today? Where are all the bandhs? There’re a few individuals who are misled and are getting into this. We are doing our best to persuade them. Their families are making efforts. Some tanzeems (terror groups) are creating problems. We are fighting them with total resolve. We don’t deal with terrorism. We have to deal with the terrorist. We are hopeful that in another few months we’ll be able to bring the situation under control,” he said, adding that India is not going to beg with Pakistan for peace.
Asked about the military standoff with China, Doval said India will not tolerate any transgression by China. “We have a long-pending territorial dispute with China. We have made our intentions clear to China and they are aware of the fact that we will not tolerate any transgression.”
Since the 2020 Galwan clashes, both the countries have held several rounds of military and diplomatic talks to resolve the stand-off. Disengagement at some border points have taken place but not at all the friction points. “There had been some unsavoury incidents in 2020. We had been able to… resolve some of it, few points still remain to be resolved. We will continue our efforts; at the same time, we have got to ensure that we are vigilant and are able to protect our borders totally,” he said.
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