The Ministry of Exterior Affairs (MEA) has reacted sharply to a BBC documentary sequence on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Gujarat communal violence of 2002, launched this week, calling it a “propaganda piece with bias” that mirrored a “persevering with colonial mindset”.
“The documentary is a mirrored image on the company that has made it – it’s a propaganda piece, there may be bias and a seamless colonial mindset. Can’t dignify such a movie,” stated MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi at a media briefing on Thursday.
The BBC documentary, ‘India: The Modi Query’, seems on the large-scale communal violence that erupted in Gujarat within the months of February and March, in 2002 that left many lifeless.
The documentary alleges {that a} staff despatched by the British authorities to inquire into the 2002 Gujarat riots stated Narendra Modi, who was then the State’s Chief Minister, was “immediately accountable for a local weather of impunity” that led to the violence.
‘Colonial mindset’
Bagchi stated that phrases like inquiry and investigation have been reflection of a `colonial mindset’. “What inquiry. They (the staff of officers) have been diplomats right here. Have been they ruling the nation?…I don’t agree with that characterisation and clearly there may be an agenda behind it,” he stated.
On former UK Overseas Secretary, Jack Straw’s feedback to the BBC on him being personally concerned within the Gujarat riot investigations as the information and outcomes offered have been alarming, Bagchi stated Straw was referring to a 20 yr outdated report and it was tough to have entry to that.
“Simply because Jack Straw says it, how does it lend it a lot legitimacy”? he requested.
The primary a part of the two-part documentary, which was launched on Tuesday, has been subsequently faraway from YouTube.
Plea dismissed
Final yr, the Supreme Court docket dismissed a plea of Zakia Jafri, the spouse of slain MP Ehsan Jafri, which challenged the Particular Investigation Staff’s (SIT) clear chit to 64 individuals, together with then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, within the 2002 Gujarat riots case.
