Despite strong ties, Khamenei's past criticisms include India's handling of Muslim issues and the Kashmir region.
India has strongly criticized Iran's Supreme Leader's comments regarding the treatment of its Muslim minority.
India's foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday that Ali Khamenei's remarks in a post on X were “misinformed and unacceptable”. Although India and Iran generally enjoy close relations, India's Hindu nationalist government's treatment of minorities has led to differences in the past.
“Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others,” the New Delhi statement said.
The curt massio came after a social media post by Khamenei on Monday that said: “We cannot consider ourselves Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering Muslims endure in Myanmar, Gaza, India or elsewhere. “
The enemies of Islam have always tried to keep us indifferent to the common identity of the Islamic Ummah. We cannot consider ourselves Muslims if we are oblivious to the sufferings that a Muslim is enduring. #Myanmar, #Gaza, #Indiaor any other place.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) 16 September 2024
India and Iran tend to have good relations, exemplified by strong economic ties. In May, they signed a 10-year deal to develop and operate the Iranian port of Chabahar on Iran's southeast coast.
India is developing the port as a gateway for exports to Iran, Afghanistan and Central Asia, allowing it to bypass the ports of Karachi and Gwadar in rival Pakistan.
But Khamenei has been critical of Muslims in India and the troubled Muslim-majority region of Kashmir in the past.
Human rights groups have alleged that mistreatment of Muslims has increased under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who took over as prime minister in 2014.
Since then, the country has seen an increasing number of attacks against Muslims and their livelihoods. Reports of hate speech have also increased.
Incidents of mob violence in the name of cow protection, which some Hindus consider sacred, have increased since Modi came to power, and houses and properties have been vandalized.
In March, the Indian government announced laws to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act – a controversial law that opens the way to Indian citizenship for non-Muslim immigrants from neighboring countries.
It announced that Hindus, Parsis, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians who fled predominantly Muslim Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to Hindu-majority India before 31 December 2014 were eligible for citizenship.
Several rights groups have called the law “anti-Muslim” for keeping the community out of its fold, questioning the secular character of the world's largest democracy.
Meanwhile, critics also accuse Iran of discriminating against minorities.
Last month, a UN report said ethnic and religious minorities, particularly the Kurds and Baloch minorities, have been disproportionately affected by Tehran's crackdown since mass protests in 2022.