It is a propaganda piece

India on Thursday described a BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots as a “propaganda piece” designed to push a particular “discredited narrative”.

The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset are blatantly visible, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at a media briefing while replying to a volley of questions on the documentary.

The documentary deals with the riots that broke out in Gujarat when Narendra Modi was the chief minister.

Bagchi said the documentary is a reflection on the agency and individuals that are peddling “this narrative” again.

“It makes us wonder about purpose of this exercise and agenda behind it,” he said.

UK PM Rishi Sunak defends Modi
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has come out in defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a controversial BBC documentary claimed that the British government was aware about the Indian leader having an alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

During Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, an Opposition Labour Party MP raised the claims made in the first part of India.

The Modi Question’ that UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) knew the “extent of Narendra Modi’s involvement”, then Gujarat chief minister, in the communal clashes that claimed hundreds of lives.

Pakistani-origin Imran Hussain, member of Parliament for Bradford East, asked Sunak if he agreed with claims in the BBC programme that some UK Foreign Office diplomats believed that “Modi was directly responsible”.

“The UK government’s position on that is clear and long standing, and it has not changed,” Sunak responded.

“Of course, we do not tolerate persecution anywhere, but I am not sure that I agree at all with the characterisation that the hon. gentleman has put forward,” the British prime minister said.

The Indian government has, meanwhile, condemned the BBC Panorama programme, which has not been screened in India, as a propaganda piece with a questionable agenda behind it. “We think that this is a propaganda piece, designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset is blatantly visible,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters during a press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday when asked about the controversial series.

The first part of the two-part India: The Modi Question’ programme, which aired on BBC Two on Tuesday, was categorised by the UK tax-payer funded broadcaster as “a look at the tensions between Indian PM Narendra Modi and India’s Muslim minority, investigating claims about his role in 2002 riots that left over a thousand dead”.