BBC’s documentary is a part of West’s conspiracy to push back India

India: A new BBC series called “India: The Modi Question” highlighting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s approach during the Gujarat Riots has fuelled the debate on the conspiracy of the West to push back India. It is marked that the series is just a piece of the colonial mindset and is designed to push a particular discredited narrative against India and its sovereignty.

The documentary has sparked various questions across the globe, and pointed out the mindset of the West toward the progressive India. The series clearly tried to tarnish the image of the progressive India among the international community. It has shown the colonial mindset as West doesn’t want to get faded up on various matters.

Various question has pointing out towards west that why has BBC not taken advantage of its platform or used its so-called investigative journalistic skills to highlight the issue at that point of time? Why do these issues suddenly become significant to highlight when India has been experiencing peace and security? There are a number of reasons behind it which are as follows:

India’s progress- irking West:

• Reports suggest that the BBC documentary has been publicized in a very calculated manner as it broadcasted at a time when India’s international image under PM Modi has been flourishing. The series simply aimed to bring down Modi and India in general international esteem.
• The economy of India experienced significant growth when advanced economies faced a recession, including the UK. India has overtaken the UK as the world’s fifth-largest economy, which has become an irking point for them.
• India has been progressing with the success of the digital revolution in the country, its ability to vaccinate its billion-plus efficiently, and as president of the G 20, India seeks to showcase the country as never before.
• All these points make India an emerging and one of the strong countries across the globe. This has caused tension among the community, which works to prevent the growth of countries like India for their personal benefit. The western media is among them that seeks to maintain the hegemony of the West.

To impact Indin’s friendly relations with other foreign states: 

• BBC documentary aimed to adversely impact India’s friendly relations with foreign states as also public order within the country, the sources said. The stand of India regarding India and Ukraine also received appreciation which roasted the West as they have used Ukraine to peddle their agenda across the globe and India remained out of it.

In order to harm the peace of India and cause tension among Hindu-Muslims:

• Various former bureaucrats and 300 retired judges criticized the BBC documentary and stated that it clearly reflected the colonial mindset and British Imperial’s resurrection. They again started using their longstanding policy called divide and rule in order to harm the peace of India and cause tension among Hindus and Muslims.
• Reports mentioned that the British again set themselves 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.
•  The brotherhood between Hindus and Muslims, peace and harmony in India has been irking them, and yet again, the BBC’s staple, dyed-in-the-wool negativity and unrelenting prejudice towards India have resurfaced as a documentary.
• The series tried to spark controversy between the Indian Hindus and Muslims.

Tries to tarnish 75-year-old edifice of India’s existence as an independent nation: 

• The documentary by BBC is based on delusional and evidently lopsided reporting as it tried to tarnish 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. It is the conspiracy of West to malign the Independent countries like India and stopped them for growing.
• Sources mentioned that the documentary was accordingly found to be undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India.
• With this series, BBC raised questions on the democratic rights of India and intruded on their personal affairs.

Role of opposition in doggedly echoing Gujarat riots abroad:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been in power in India for almost nine years. The craze of PM Modi among Indians is evident in the recently held Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh elections, while opposition parties have faced decisive defeat, which made them choose a different path to malign the image of Modi ji. According to various reports, the allegations about his complicity with the Gujarat riots have been doggedly aired by the opposition in India and echoed abroad.
• Even after using various tactics, the opposition failed to tarnish PM Modi’s image. In fact, India witnessed progress both inside and outside as the country now shares great relationships with various countries across the globe. As per the reports, the opposition has chosen the international community as part of their propaganda to put PM Modi and his administration under scrutiny on the issues already discussed publicly.
• The reports highlighted that the opposition had chosen platforms like BBC, which have nothing to do with India and its issues, and problems provided them with wrong and factless information and presented Modi ji as the religious leader who is against Muslims.

Hence, the entire scenario evidently indicated that this was just a part of the propaganda of BBC and to show the mindset of the West. They cannot bear the countries like India, which were under their control at some time, would have been reaching the next level of development without their support. Various reports mentioned that the BBC documentary showed a lack of vision, common sense and judgment by producing such an insensitive one-sided documentary.

The documentary is a piece of propaganda and has no relevance in today’s India because it insults the judiciary and the Parliament of India. The Supreme Court of India investigated the Gujarat Riots and set up the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in 2012 when the UPA was in power. In 2022 the SC delivered a 452-page judgment exonerating Modi of any wrongdoing. The BBC documentary takes no note of this.

BBC released the series called India: The Modi Question on Tuesday with its first episode, and the second part of the series is scheduled to be broadcast on January 24. The series looks into Narendra Modi’s time as the chief minister of Gujarat.

The government of India has condemned the documentary and stated that it is nothing but just a step to defame the country and its people. The Ministry of external affairs stated that the series of BBC on Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a piece of propaganda. They are trying to push a particular discredited narrative. “The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset is blatantly visible,” foreign ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, adding that the documentary has not been screened in India.

He further asserted that the documentary and film are the platforms which are used to peddle this narrative again and make them wonder about the purpose of this exercise and the agenda behind it. So, whatever it is, the country will never dignify such efforts and condemn all such practices.

Along with that, more than 300 eminet Indians, including retired judges, bureaucrats, and armed forces veterans, issued a joint statement against this series and stated that it is ‘unrelenting prejudice’ toward India and its leader.

Bhaswati Mukherjee, former ambassador of India to the Netherlands, added that BBC has always remained at loggerheads with India and the film showed a colonial mindset with regard to India. The programs are totally discriminatory and funded by private partners, not the British government.

Veena Sikri, former ambassador to Bangladesh, raised a question on the journalistic approach of BBC and stated that this is totally against the ethics of journalism. They have completely ignored the judgement of the Supreme Court of India. The 452-page judgement of the SC completely exonerated PM Modi and explained how the incidents took place.

In order to take a decisive step against the BBC documentary, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced that the government issued the instruction to block the first episode of the series on YouTube. The social media platform Twitter was asked to block more than 50 tweets containing links of the video on YouTube, the sources said.

The directions were reportedly issued by the Information and Broadcasting Secretary on Friday using emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021. Both YouTube and Twitter have complied with the directions, the sources said.

Further, Rami Ranger prominent member of the House of Lords of the UK Parliament has lodged a protest against the documentary and wrote a letter to Tim Davie, Director General of the BBC. e stated that the timing for the BBC documentary on the Gujarat riots is sinister, considering India and the UK are working for a free trade agreement, India has assumed the presidency of G20, and the UK has an Indian-origin prime minister.

Hence, the conclusion cited that the BBC documentary is totally irrelevant for today’s India because this is a progressive country which has the right to take its decision in its own way. The series has clearly tried to undermine the sovereign practice of India. It has also attempted to tarnish the practices of India’s constitution, which is a big mistake. West conspired everything to remain as the ruler and make attempt to tarnish India which is emerging as a progressive country.