Was Ayatollah Khamenei India's friend?

Key Highlights

• In 2020, after the riots over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Khamenei again interfered in India's internal affairs, calling to confront extremist Hindus, describing the riots as a massacre of Muslims and threatening India with isolation from the world of Islam.
• He went to the extent of using the hashtag Indian Muslims in Danger. advertisement❮❯ These were neither the first nor isolated incidents of Iran's supreme leader interfering in India's internal affairs.
• He did so four times between 2019 (abrogation of Article 370) to 2024 (comparing India to Gaza) and each time the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned the Iranian envoy to criticise his interference.2017, Kashmir: Khamenei called on the Muslim world to mobilise support for what he described as "oppressed Muslims of Kashmir" — a framing that mirrored Pakistani state propaganda on the issue.
• India had not made any policy change on Kashmir at the time.
• August 2019, Kashmir: After India revoked Article 370 in August 2019, Khamenei publicly demanded India adopt a "just policy" on Kashmir.