The Gujarat Legislative Assembly on Friday unanimously passed a resolution condemning the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for its documentary India: The Modi Question on 2002 Gujarat riots.
During the discussion, the BJP legislators claimed that the "documentary was part of an international conspiracy to defame India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose popularity is rising as a global leader".
The Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary while hailing it as a "historical" move said that passing the resolution unanimously "seemed to have proved that there is a lot of anger in the minds of the public against the BBC documentary and central government will be apprised for taking further action against the makers."
The move came after BJP MLA from Sojitra in Anand Vipul Patel proposed a private member's motion against the BBC for "fabricated findings shown in the documentary".
Patel's proposal was supported by MLAs Manisha Vakil, Dhavalsinh Zala, Amit Thaker and Minister of State for Home Harah Sanghavi.
The leaders supporting the motion said that the documentary "misrepresented events of 2002" in an attempt to defame India in the world at the hands of "so-called liberals who are anti-India".
They said that "when these people failed to defeat PM Modi in the past 20 years stoop to new low by making such a film as part of the anti-India conspiracy".
Addressing the house, Sanghavi said that BBC relied upon NGOs and activists like Teesta Setalvad who are facing several criminal cases including misappropriation of funds meant for riots victims.
Published 10 March 2023, 16:49 IST