MEA says BBC documentary on PM Modi is 'propaganda'

'The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset are blatantly visible,' MEA said

The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday dismissed as “propaganda” a BBC documentary, which claimed that a probe by the diplomats of the United Kingdom after the 2002 communal clashes in Gujarat had found that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister of the state, was “directly responsible” for what was a “systematic campaign of violence”.

A spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) told journalists in New Delhi that the BBC documentary titled “India: The Modi Question” was designed to push a particularly “discredited narrative” and reflected “continuing colonial mindset”.

The first part of the documentary has the then British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw saying that the UK government had initiated an inquiry and sent to Gujarat a team, which had produced a very thorough report on the 2002 communal clash. It also has some images of the text of the hitherto unpublished report, including a sentence holding Narendra Modi “directly responsible” for what had happened. Straw on camera referred to the allegations that Modi, being the Chief Minister of the state, had played “a pretty active part” in pulling back the police from stopping the extremists of a particular community to target people of another community.

“Let me just make it very clear that we think this is a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, the lack of objectivity, and frankly a continuing colonial mindset, are blatantly visible,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesperson of the MEA, told journalists in New Delhi. “If anything, this film or documentary is a reflection on the agency and individuals that are peddling this narrative again. It makes us wonder about the purpose of this exercise and the agenda behind it and frankly we do not wish to dignify such efforts.”

The documentary was not aired in India.

Modi had in June 2022 got a clean chit from the Supreme Court, which had dismissed a plea challenging a Special Investigation Team’s conclusion clearing him of any wrongdoing during the riots 20 years ago.

"How do I have access to that? It is a 20-year-old report,” Bagchi said when a journalist asked him about the British government report that was cited in the BBC documentary. “Why would I just jump on it now? Just because Jack Straw says it, how do they lend it that much legitimacy?” wondered the MEA spokesperson.

“I heard words like inquiry and investigation. There is a reason why we used the word colonial mindset. We do not use words loosely. What enquiry? They were diplomats here...are they ruling the country. I do not agree with that characterisation”.

The BBC, however, defended the documentary, saying that it had been “rigorously researched” as per highest editorial standards. "A wide range of voices, witnesses and experts were approached, and we have featured a range of opinions – this includes responses from people in the BJP. We offered the Indian government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series – it declined to respond,” the BBC said in a statement issued in London.

The issue was raised in the British Parliament too. Imran Hussain, a Pakistani-British MP, asked Prime Minister Rishi Sunak if he agreed with claims in the BBC documentary that some of the UK diplomats had believed that Narendra Modi had been “directly responsible” for the communal clash. “The UK government's position on that is clear and long standing, and it has not changed," Sunak responded, adding: “Of course, we do not tolerate persecution anywhere, but I am not sure that I agree at all with the characterisation that the honourable gentleman has put forward.”