On Saturday (January 21), Indian civil society came forward to slam the United Kingdom’s national broadcaster, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), over its propaganda documentary on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A total of 133 retired bureaucrats, 156 retired armed officers, and 13 retired judges have written an open letter, wherein they dubbed the BBC documentary as ‘delusions of British Imperial resurrection.’ They warned, “Not this time. Not with our leader. Not with India. Never on our watch!”
“So now we have the archetype of British past imperialism in India setting itself up as both judge and jury, to resurrect Hindu-Muslim tensions that were overwhelmingly the creation of the British Raj policy of divide and rule,” they further stated.
They emphasised, “Not only is the BBC series, judging from what we have seen of it so far, based on delusional and evidently lopsided reporting, but it presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India’s existence as an independent, democratic nation, a nation which functions according to the will of the people of India.
Retired judges, retired bureaucrats and retired armed forces veterans co-sign a statement rebutting the BBC documentary ‘Delusions of British Imperial Resurrection?’ pic.twitter.com/XCFROpYzPl
— ANI (@ANI) January 21, 2023
The group of retired bureaucrats, army officers, and judges further said, “Glaring factual errors apart, the series – which uses the words ‘allegedly’ and ‘reportedly’ repeatedly, (not ‘factually”) – reeks of motivated distortion that is as mind-numbingly unsubstantiated as it is nefarious.”
“This is demonstrated most vividly by its completely sidelining the core fact: that the apex judicial institution of India, the Supreme Court of India, has unambiguously ruled out any role of Shri. Modi in the Gujarat violence of 2002, while firmly rejecting allegations of complicity and inaction by the then Gujarat State government headed by Chief Minister Modi,” they added.
They questioned the sinister motives of the BBC for dismissing the verdict of the supreme court. “Prime Minister Modi’s active engagement with every Indian citizen, be it in housing or health or education, is only worthy of approbation and emulation,” they emphasised.
The retired officials also hailed the Covid-19 relief package of the Modi government, besides the abrogation of Article 370 and facilitating the empowerment of Muslim women through the criminalisation of instant Triple Talaq.
“The series claims to examine policies ‘in the context of rising tensions in India’. Not only is this a serious waste of the audience’s time, patience and intelligence, it actually calls into question BBC’s own journalistic and ethical principles,” the letter read.
“This documentary is not a neutral critique, it is not about exercising creative freedom, it is not even about a divergent, anti-establishment point of view. It is in fact a visibly motivated charge sheet against our leader, a fellow Indian and a patriot,” it further noted.
The Background of the BBC controversy
Recently, BBC aired a two-part documentary attacking PM Narendra Modi’s tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister during the Gujarat riots of 2002. India has denounced the controversial program as a “propaganda piece” that is designed to push a discredited narrative.
One of the nefarious objectives behind the documentary was to whitewash the role of Islamists in the Godhra train carnage, which claimed a total of 59 Hindu lives. It further used the already discredited statements of Sanjiv Bhatt and RB Sreekumar to attack the Indian Prime Minister. BBC even used the boasts of Babu Bajrangi and Haresh Bhatt, who have accepted that they were reading the script given by a journalist, to try and declare PM Modi guilty.
