US condemns insulting remarks on Prophet Mohammed by Indian officials

Ruling BJP has distanced itself from those who made the comments

A protest on Friday outside the Indian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia. AP

The US has condemned the insulting comments about the Prophet Mohammed by officials from India's ruling party following global outrage and weeks of domestic street protests.

Nupur Sharma and Naveen Kumar Jindal from the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party made the derogatory remarks during a live television debate and in social media posts last month.

The BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, distanced itself from the officials. It suspended Ms Sharma and sacked Mr Jindal to try to contain the diplomatic backlash after more than 15 Muslim countries, including leading Gulf nations, criticised the Indian government.

“We condemn the offensive comments made by two BJP officials and we were glad to see that the party publicly condemns those comments,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Thursday.

“We regularly engage with the Indian government at senior levels on human rights concerns including freedom of religion or belief and we encourage India to promote respect for human rights.”

It came weeks after Washington criticised its close partner following the release of the annual report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

The report said it documented incendiary comments by Indian public officials and gave accounts of discrimination against Muslims and Christians in the Hindu majority but officially secular country.

Critics accuse the Indian government of pursuing policies that target or discriminate against Muslims.

Deadly protests broke out last Friday in several Indian cities over the inflammatory comments by the ruling party officials and there were demands for their arrest.

More protests were held at Delhi’s Jama Masjid on Friday.

Two people were shot dead by police and dozens injured in clashes in the eastern city of Ranchi last Friday.

Violence also broke out in several cities in Uttar Pradesh during the demonstrations last week. The government later bulldozed half a dozen Muslim homes.

More than 350 Muslim protesters have also been arrested in a crackdown by the state government led by Hindu monk-politician Yogi Adityanath.