Regardless of sturdy ties, Khamenei’s previous criticisms embody India’s dealing with of Muslim points and the Kashmir area.
India has hit out at feedback from Iran’s supreme chief concerning the therapy of its Muslim minority.
India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs mentioned in an announcement on Monday that remarks made by Ali Khamenei in a put up on X have been “misinformed and unacceptable”. Whereas India and Iran typically take pleasure in shut relations, the method of India’s Hindu nationalist authorities to minorities has led to disagreements previously.
“International locations commenting on minorities are suggested to have a look at their very own report earlier than making any observations about others,” the assertion from New Delhi learn.
The curt missive adopted a social media put up from Khamenei on Monday that mentioned, “We can’t take into account ourselves to be Muslims if we’re oblivious to the struggling {that a} Muslim is enduring in Myanmar, Gaza, India, or some other place.”
The enemies of Islam have all the time tried to make us detached with regard to our shared identification as an Islamic Ummah. We can’t take into account ourselves to be Muslims if we’re oblivious to the struggling {that a} Muslim is enduring in #Myanmar, #Gaza, #India, or some other place.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) September 16, 2024
India and Iran are likely to share relationship, illustrated by sturdy financial ties. In Might, they signed a 10-year contract to develop and function the Iranian port of Chabahar, on Iran’s southeastern coast.
India is creating the port as a gateway to exports to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia, permitting it to bypass the ports of Karachi and Gwadar in rival Pakistan.
However Khamenei has been vital previously over points involving Muslims in India and the troubled Muslim-majority area of Kashmir.
Human rights teams have alleged that the mistreatment of Muslims has elevated below Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took over as prime minister in 2014.
Since then, the nation has seen a rising variety of assaults towards Muslims and their livelihoods. Experiences of hate speech have additionally grown.
Instances of mob lynching below the pretext of defending cows, thought-about holy by some Hindus, have elevated throughout Modi’s time in energy, and houses and properties have been demolished.
In March, the Indian authorities introduced guidelines to implement the Citizenship Modification Act – a controversial legislation which opens the best way to Indian citizenship for non-Muslim refugees from neighbouring international locations.
It declared that Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled to Hindu-majority India from primarily Muslim Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan earlier than December 31, 2014, have been eligible for citizenship.
The legislation was declared “anti-Muslim” by a number of rights teams for conserving the group out of its ambit, elevating questions over the secular character of the world’s largest democracy.
In the meantime, critics additionally accuse Iran of discrimination towards minorities.
Final month, a UN report mentioned ethnic and spiritual minorities, particularly Kurd and Baluch minorities, have been disproportionally affected by Tehran’s crackdown since mass protests in 2022.
