After backlash, BJP introspects: 38 leaders identified as offenders; 27 warned, 5k comments found unnecessary

After facing huge backlash and humiliation internationally for the comment against Prophet Mohammad by one of its national spokespersons - Nupur Sharma, the ruling BJP has reportedly swung into damage control and systematic course-correction.

According to sources, BJP's top leadership has directed its research wing to prepare a list of the leaders who offended religious sentiments of minorities in the last 8 years.

A prominent Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar claimed that after the scrutiny, the BJP has identified 38 leaders as those who often offended religious sentiments of Muslims.

Among those who have been identified as offenders are Anant Kumar Hedge, Giriraj Singh, Shobha Karandlaje, Tathagat Roy, Vinay Katiyar, Mahesh Sharma, Raja Singh, Sakshi Maharaj and Sangeet Som.

Out of 38 leaders, 27 have been issued warnings by the party brasses and asked to consult the leadership before issuing any statement over sensitive issues, claimed Dainik Bhaskar.

As per the Hindi daily, the BJP leadership has also roped in an IT firm to help prepare the list of the “offenders”.

After an analysis, the BJP reportedly concluded that during the last 8 years, 5,200 statements given by its leaders were unnecessary and 2,700 statements issued by its leaders contained sensitive words.

BJP’s introspection has been attributed to the outrage in the Middle East over the derogatory comment by Nupur Sharma during a TV debate.

Though, in an apparent bid to calm down the temper and growing anti-India campaign in Arab countries, the BJP suspended Nupur Sharma with Naveen Jindal - head of the Delhi BJP social media. But the resentment refused to die down. Instead, it has spread towards the south Asian countries also.

After Arab nations lodged their strong protest over the statement, small countries like Maldives, Libya and Indonesia have also lodged official protests against India over the controversial remarks, putting India in dock.

All these countries have expressed their strong unhappiness and rejection of the insults of the Prophet, demanding an apology from the government.

Joining the chorus against India, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has also issued a statement, demanding apology.

Though India has rejected comments by OIC as “unwarranted” and “narrow-minded” over the controversy, it failed to curb the growing international outrage.

The OIC - intergovernmental organisation of largely Muslim-dominated nations, whose member states include Pakistan - is based in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

India and the OIC have been at the loggerhead in the past also. India has frequently condemned the OIC for commenting on Jammu and Kashmir while OIC calls itself “the collective voice of the Muslim world”.