New Delhi blocks BBC documentary on PM Modi from airing in India
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The documentary questions Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
MUMBAI - India has blocked the airing of a BBC documentary which questioned Mr Narendra Modi’s leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
New Delhi said even sharing any clips from the documentary via social media is barred.
Directions to block the clips from being shared have been issued using emergency powers available to the government under the country’s information technology rules, said Mr Kanchan Gupta, an adviser to the government, on his Twitter handle on Saturday.
While the BBC has not aired the documentary in India, the video was uploaded on some YouTube channels, Mr Gupta said.
The government has ordered Twitter to block more than 50 tweets linking to the video of the documentary and YouTube has been instructed to block any uploads of the video, Mr Gupta said, adding that the platforms have complied with the directions.
Prime Minister Modi was chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when it was gripped by communal riots that left more than 1,000 people dead, by government count – most of them Muslims.
The violence erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing 59.
Rights activists estimate at least double that number died in the rioting.
Mr Modi denied accusations that he failed to stop the rioting.
A special investigation team appointed by the Supreme Court to look into the violence said in a 541-page report in 2012 that it could find no evidence to prosecute the then Chief Minister.
Mr Modi was later named the head of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, leading it to power in general elections in 2014 and then in 2019.
Last week, a spokesman for India’s Foreign Ministry termed the BBC documentary a “propaganda piece” meant to push a “discredited narrative”. REUTERS
