BBC Documentary on Modi
The documentary was accordingly found to be undermining sovereignty and integrity of India, and having the potential to adversely impact India’s friendly relations with foreign States as also public order within the country,” said sources in a report to Hindustan Times.
“The documentary produced by British Broadcasting Corporation, UK’s Public Broadcaster, has been earlier called by MEA as a “propaganda piece” that lacks objectivity and reflects colonial mindset. While it was not made available in India by BBC in India, some YouTube channels appear to have uploaded it to promote an anti-India agenda. It is reported that YouTube has also been instructed to block the video if it is again uploaded on its platform. Twitter has also been directed to identify and block the tweets containing the link to the video on other platforms,” an official said.
BBC Documentary on Modi – BBC Documentary on Modi Riots
A documentary by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that revealed the government of the United Kingdom carried out an investigation into the 2002 Gujarat riots is a piece of “propaganda” that reflects the “agencies and individuals” who carry a “colonial mindset”, an official of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday. Responding to questions on the documentary that revisited the riots and several other related cases, including the murder of former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya and alleged police inaction against violent mobs. The official Spokesperson of the MEA Arindam Bagchi said the Indian authorities would not like to “dignify” the documentary.
“The bias, the lack of objectivity, and frankly a continuing colonial mindset, is blatantly visible. If anything, this film or documentary is a reflection on the agency and individuals that are peddling this narrative again,” Mr. Bagchi said, clarifying that the BBC hasn’t screened the film in India.
The film, India: The Modi Question, has reported that under the Prime Ministership of Tony Blair, the U.K. conducted an investigation into the riots that included at least three Indian-origin British citizens among the casualties. “There were very serious claims that Chief Minister Modi had played a proactive part in pulling back the police and in tacitly encouraging the Hindu extremists,” former Foreign Secretary of the U.K. Jack Straw is shown stating in the documentary. The film which is a “long form reportage” informed the riots had created “great deal of alarm” in the U.K. and both the U.K. and the European Union conducted inquiries into the phase of mass violence that lasted for nearly three days in Gujarat beginning with February 28, 2002.
