New Bharatiya Janata Party's troubled road ahead

The BJP will find it extremely difficult to calibrate the utterances of its loudmouths so as not to hurt Muslim sentiment and maintain good relations with the Muslim world

Religious issues, unless stoked, tend to have a short half-life. With appeals from Muslim clergy, the countrywide protests over the insult to the Prophet by a spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in all likelihood will die down after some outpouring of anger in the community. But remarkably neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said a word about the communal discord sparked by the designated public face of their party.

Junior officers in the Ministry of External Affairs have been left to defend the party and the government, assuaging the anger of Muslim nations.