A BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that questions his leadership during the horrific riots in Gujarat in 2002 has been denounced as “propaganda” by India’s foreign ministry.
When sectarian riots in Gujarat, a state in western India, left more than 1,000 people dead, the most of them Muslims, Modi served as the state’s chief minister. After a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire and killed 59 people, violence broke out.
The incidents were described as a “organized campaign of violence” with “all the markings of ethnic cleansing” in the documentary’s report, which directly blames Modi for the actions.
The UK government report wasn’t made public until the documentary made it known.
The inquiry team asserted in the video, which was made public on Tuesday, that Modi had stopped the police from intervening to stop violence against Muslims and identified sources to support their assertion.
Following an investigation by India’s top court, Modi was cleared in 2012 despite his denial of the charges. Last year, a different petition that contested his exoneration was denied.
The spokeswoman for India’s foreign ministry, Arindam Bagchi, called the BBC documentary a “propaganda piece” aiming to forward a “discredited narrative” and claimed that it is “blatantly evident” to have prejudice, a lack of objectivity, and a “continued colonial attitude.”
He said at a news conference, “It makes us wonder about the goal of this exercise and the intent behind it, and we do not intend to dignify such efforts.
In response to inquiries from the media seeking reaction, the BBC stated that the program was “rigorously researched” and featured a “broad range” of voices and viewpoints, including those of members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A BBC representative said, “We offered the Indian government a right to reply to the issues presented in the series — it declined to respond.”
The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a paramilitary organization affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist group, is also mentioned in the documentary as having plotted the violence. Modi enlisted in the RSS at an early age in Gujarat, his home state.
According to the investigating panel, the VHP “could not have inflicted so much damage without the climate of impunity imposed by the state government.”
In an interview for the documentary, Jack Straw, who was the UK’s foreign secretary at the time of the riots, stated that Modi’s reputation had been damaged by the charges.
These were “quite serious charges,” according to Straw, that Chief Minister Modi had been actively involved in reducing police presence and covertly supporting Hindu fanatics. “That was an especially appalling example.”
“What we did was create an inquiry and send a team to Gujarat to investigate the situation firsthand. They also created a very thorough report,” he continued.
The report asserted that Muslim women were often raped during the 2002 unrest. It further stated that the goal of the riots was to “purge Muslims from Hindu areas,” which, according to critics today, has turned into state policy as part of the BJP’s drive for Hindu nationalism.
Muslims in India have endured multiple acts of violence and lynchings, as well as obvious prejudice that is frequently motivated by politics, under Modi, whose party has been in power since 2014.
Calls for the country to become a solely Hindu state have also increased from Hindu supremacist organizations and BJP followers.
The regulations that forbid the hijab, a headscarf worn by many Muslim women, in particular regions of the nation are an example of the systematic, state-sponsored discrimination against Muslims. The Citizenship Amendment Act, which grants nationality to non-Muslim minority from neighboring nations, is one of the contentious legislation that have been passed over the years.
According to the BBC documentary, the UK investigation demonstrates that “reconciliation will be impossible” as long as Modi is in charge.
