Because the Middle East matters. A lot. Sixty percent of India’s oil comes from West Asia. Almost 1 crore Indians live and work in the Gulf – labourers, nurses, drivers, technicians, doctors, bankers, business persons – and they send roughly $55 billion back to India every year. It’s a huge part of India’s economy. The UAE is India’s third biggest trade partner, after the United States and China. Saudi Arabia and Iraq are at number 4 and 5. Our trade with these three countries, all of whom we have just antagonised, stands at $150 billion annually. But strangely, the BJP’s spokespersons either didn’t know all this or didn’t care that someday there would be a price to pay for all the bigotry and hate that plays out daily on news channels and social media. Even now, the action against Nupur Sharma and Jindal appears to be more of a tactic, a strategic retreat to diffuse the outrage, and not an admission that something is badly wrong with our social and political fabric.