Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for being “too slow to condemn his party’s bigotry” and allegedly condoning “overt expressions of Islamophobia from his own camp”, PTI reported.

“The attitude that India loves Muslims so long as they are outside India, but insults them at home, is not tenable in a world of instant global communications,” Tharoor said. “The mounting number of incidents and statements against Muslims in India was bound to attract negative attention abroad. It is more important to change the domestic reality than do damage control. The Modi government has shamefully failed to curb the appalling behaviour of many of its most rabid supporters, including some in high positions.”

Tharoor was referring to recent instances of discrimination against Muslims, especially since news broke that a convention held by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi in March was a coronavirus hotspot. India is facing backlash from Arab countries over these instances. Earlier this month, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation had urged the Indian government to take urgent steps to protect Muslims who are being “negatively profiled” and facing “discrimination and violence” in India.

On Thursday, Suresh Tiwari, a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Uttar Pradesh had told people in his constituency to not buy vegetables from Muslims amid the coronavirus pandemic. He was then issued a show cause notice for his remarks. A day later, another BJP MLA Brij Bhushan Rajput from Charkhari constituency in the state was seen in a video threatening a Muslim vegetable vendor to not make sales in his area.

Referring to the criticisms from the Gulf nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, Tharoor said the backlash was not surprising. “While I welcome the prime minister’s and the foreign minister’s attempts at damage control, it is far more important to change the domestic reality than to issue reassuring statements,” he said.

Tharoor also urged the Indian government to bring back Indians stranded in West Asia amid the coronavirus pandemic and said it was every nation’s responsibility to expedite its citizens’ evacuation. Last week, in a letter to Modi, the Congress leader had urged him to ensure the return of these Indians and set up region-specific task forces using local community languages to streamline relief and repatriation operations.

Tharoor claimed that the government’s argument was that “a large number of travellers from abroad will place an unsustainable degree of strain on the country’s healthcare and quarantine facilities”. But, he added: “We must bring our own citizens back. It is not just a matter of their rights, but of what’s right morally, emotionally and constitutionally.”

Meanwhile, he also referred to states’ demands that the Centre release Goods and Services Tax compensation in view of the coronavirus pandemic. The total dues of all states as GST compensation for December and January was around Rs 30,000 crore. “Give the states their own money, so they don’t have to beg for resources to combat the virus,” the Thiruvananthapuram parliamentarian said. “In addition, yes, extra support will be needed for those states facing a larger Covid-19 burden.”

He added that the Congress has been urging the Centre to put Rs 7,500 into every Jan Dhan account, as the “ordinary people also need financial help so they can help themselves”.