It boils down to money and the government cannot afford to offend the much richer Gulf countries, the biggest employers of Indian emigrants.
Nupur Sharma’s hate-filled, communal mindset is hardly different from any other BJP spokesperson. Nor is her idiocy. The reason why she had to be publicly censured/suspended by the BJP though, has less to do with ideology than economic compulsions – it’s the money, stupid.
Being fed by the Modi regime’s 24X7, full-spectrum propaganda machinery, we often become oblivious to facts. Here are some relevant ones. India attracted net FDI inflows worth 39 billion dollars in 2021-22, lower than the 43 billion dollars which came in 2020-21 (RBI data). In contrast to such magnitude of FDI inflows which amount to less than 1.5% of India’s GDP, India attracted remittances worth 89 billion dollars in the calendar year 2021, i.e. over 3% of its GDP (IOM/GMDAC data).
As an RBI report showed in November 2018, the Gulf countries of UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, and Oman account for over 50% of India’s annual inflow of private remittances. Indian states of Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Andhra Pradesh accounted for over 50% of the remittances received by India.
Remittances from NRI workers, both semi-skilled and skilled, contribute much more to the Indian economy than foreign investment brought in by the TNCs. Data from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (2018) show that out of a total NRI population of 1.34 crore, over 92 lakh NRIs, i.e. 69% are based in 22 Muslim majority countries (table below).
NRI population in the US is 12.8 lakh, UK and Singapore account for 3.5 lakh each. In contrast, the six Gulf countries, UAE (34 lakh), Saudi Arabia (26 lakh), Kuwait (10.3 lakh), Oman (7.8 lakh), Qatar (7.5 lakh) and Bahrain (3.2 lakh), account for around 66% of the total NRI population. A significant share of the NRI population in these Muslim majority countries also comprises of Hindus.
The RSS-inspired BJP does not care about India’s own Muslim population, presently estimated at around 20 crores and projected to become the highest Muslim population in a single country, in the coming decades.
However, India’s ruling party cannot afford to offend the much richer Gulf countries, which are the biggest employers of Indian emigrants. These emigrants send in billions of dollars in remittances which in turn foot our import bill and keep the external deficit/debt under check.
Moreover, Muslim majority Gulf countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Bangladesh, and Indonesia are among its top trading partners in India. If this economic reality restrains the BJP from its anti-Muslim excesses, it is good for India as a country.
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