The Indian Ministry of Information has banned the broadcasting in the country of a documentary by the British broadcaster BBC on the story of Prime Minister Narendra Modi: the documentary recounts Modi’s responsibilities in the killing of hundreds of Muslims during some serious clashes that took place in 2002 in the state of Gujarat, of which he was governor at the time.
The allegations contained in the documentary have fueled the debate on the discrimination against Muslims by the Hindu nationalist and right-wing government of Modi. Modi, who in just over a year will have to face the national elections, claims that these are false and specious accusations, while the oppositions consider them well founded and believe that the blocking of the diffusion of the documentary is an act of censorship, consistent with Modi’s growing authoritarianism and with the progressive limitation of freedom of the press and of expression implemented by him in recent years.
To ban the dissemination of the documentary, the government resorted to a law introduced in 2021 by Modi himself, which gives the government the power to block the circulation of certain information within the country in cases deemed “emergency”.
The documentary in question is called India: the Modi question and describes the rise of the prime minister within the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), the right-wing nationalist party to which he belongs. It was released in the United Kingdom on January 17, is divided into two episodes and can be viewed on BBC iPlayer, the BBC’s video platform (a VPN connection is required to view it from Italy).
The most disputed part, the one that led to the blocking of its diffusion in India, is the first, which describes Modi’s work as governor of Gujarat, and in particular his management of the three days of violent clashes caused by the fire in a train that on February 27, 2002 caused the death of 59 Hindu pilgrims. The responsibility for the fire was attributed to a group of Muslims: the clashes that followed are considered among the most serious since the independence of the country. Nearly 800 Muslims and over 200 Hindus were killed.
Even then Modi was accused of not having done enough to protect the Muslim community and of having indeed tacitly encouraged the more extremist fringes of the Hindu community to commit violence (which also included particularly brutal rapes and murders). There was also a trial in this regard, but in 2013 the Indian Supreme Court acquitted Modi for lack of evidence.
The first episode of the documentary deals precisely with the clashes in Gujarat and brings Modi’s responsibilities in the violence suffered by the Muslim community back into the spotlight. The documentary includes interviews and excerpts from a hitherto unpublished report produced by the British government shortly after the riots, as part of an investigation into the incident commissioned by then UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
The report says that Modi was “directly responsible” for the “atmosphere of impunity” in which the violence took place. The report then says that “the level of violence was much higher than reported” and, above all, that Modi ordered the police not to intervene to defend the Muslims. In essence, the documentary confirms the accusations already made against Modi on the grounds that he not only did not do enough to prevent the violence, but rather encouraged it.
Not only that: the report also says that “the goal of the clashes was to eliminate Muslims from areas inhabited by Hindus” and that the rapes and violence committed by Hindus against Muslims have “all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing”.
Subject: GUJARAT POGROM
▪️“Violence politically motivated
▪️“Aim was to purge Muslims from Hindu areas
▪️“Has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing
▪️“Narendra Modi directly responsible.”New BBC film reveals British govt report into 2002.
Watch: https://t.co/3DOiZu6eQY pic.twitter.com/PbUfCrc5yN
— churumuri (@churumuri) January 18, 2023
For now, only the first episode of the documentary has been released (the second will be visible starting this week), and only in the United Kingdom. However, several clips have circulated on social media, some of which on Indian accounts: in addition to prohibiting the dissemination of the documentary in India, the government has also ordered the removal of dozens of posts on Twitter and YouTube that have shared pieces of the documentary online in recent days .
Kanchan Gupta, a consultant to India’s information ministry, said more than 50 posts on Twitter alone had been removed and called the BBC documentary “hostile propaganda” and “anti-India rubbish». Gupta then accused the BBC of “undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India” with unfounded accusations, and the authors of the BBC documentary of being moved by a “colonial mentality”. The criticisms were also joined by a group of more than 300 representatives of the Indian judiciary and public administration.
The BBC, for its part, has defended its work by arguing that what is shown in the documentary is the result of research carried out “according to the highest editorial standards”, with the contribution of a series of experts and witnesses, as well as through the collection of opinions from representatives of various parties involved, including members of the BJP itself. The BBC also said it had contacted the Indian government to reply, but would have refused.
