What happened to India, asks UAE princess who called out hate mongering

By Furquan Ameen in New Delhi

This is from The Telegraph 

Princess Hend Faisal Al Qassemi, a member of the United Arab Emirates royal family whose criticism of hate mongering by an Indian led others in her country to speak out, has said that the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were the role models to follow in times such as these.

“There is no winner if this turns aggressive. We have to follow the Nelson Mandela-Martin Luther-Gandhi way of doing things,” said Al Qassemi. “We don’t need another Hitler, we need a new Gandhi,” she told The Telegraph Online on Tuesday.

Al Qassemi, who was among the first to call out an Indian for posting Islamophobic tweets, said that in the Emirates hate speech was a crime and punishable offence.

On April 15, the princess used screenshots of a now de-activated account of one Saurabh Upadhyay to state that anyone who was openly racist and discriminatory in the UAE would be fined and made to leave.


Soon others followed suit. Over the past few days, several influential Arabs across UAE went about sharing hate speeches by Indian politicians and videos of the February violence in north east Delhi.


This led to a response by Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed by several ministers. On April 19, the PMO tweeted quoting Modi: “COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking.”

The next day, India’s ambassador to UAE Pavan Kapoor tweeted: “Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this.”

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar described it as a secular-communal narrative being pushed deliberately while Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi declared that India was always a heaven for minorities and Muslims.
The princess, or “shaikha”, explained the reason behind her April 15 tweet that resulted in a blitzkrieg of support for her on twitter by Arab activists and intellectuals.
“I noticed an Indian making fun of my religion, my prophet, my country and it’s achievements, ridiculed it’s accomplishments and was threatening us on our land. I was shocked and I felt violated,” she said.
Al Qassemi said that many Indians went after her, claiming she was defending the Tablighi Jamaat, who were blamed for spreading the virus. "To be honest, I’ve never heard of them (Tablighi Jamaat). I wasn’t defending a political group in India. I was defending humans being killed," she said.
“What happened to India?” she said, implying that this wasn't the country she knew. "Hinduism is one of the most peaceful religions. Perhaps more than Islam, Christianity and Judaism," she added and recalled how she grew up watching Indian movies, eventually picking up a bit of Hindi too.
She said she has had Hindi-speaking classmates, colleagues, workers and managers and even has “India (Hend)” as her first name.