There was a documentary about Modi in India… The government banned it

In India, the government is on the agenda with the ban on the documentary produced by the BBC. Discussions over censorship came to light when the government banned the documentary, which dealt with the role of the Prime Minister in the violence during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Controversy erupted in India over the first part of the two-part documentary, which followed his rise through the ranks of the Bharatiya Janata Party and his appointment as Gujarat’s prime minister. The BBC also discovered notes showing that Modi’s behavior was criticized by Western diplomats and the British government at the time.

Approximately 1,000 Muslims died in the violence. Police were accused of being passive and not doing enough to protect Modi, the minority community, from Hindu mobs. However, Modi denied all the charges and in 2013 the high court said there was not enough evidence to prosecute him.

BLOCK YOUTUBE AND TWITTER SHARES

The first episode of the documentary aired in the UK on Tuesday of last week. In India, however, it has not been published, but its content circulates on social networks. For this reason, the Indian government has ordered YouTube and Twitter to remove videos and tweets related to the documentary criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both YouTube and Twitter followed the instructions, he said.

The BBC said in a statement that the documentary was “meticulously researched to the highest editorial standards.”

The ban on the BBC documentary was met with anger by opposition politicians, who accused the Modi government of censorship. Mahua Moitra, a lawmaker from the opposition Trinamool Congress party, tweeted a link to the clip, writing: “It’s a shame that the emperor of the world’s greatest democracy and courtiers are so suspicious of him.”