BBC Documentary: Feeling insulted by the recent release of the documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), overseas Indians will protest against media houses in various cities of the UK on January 29.
There will be protests in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Birmingham and London at 12 noon on Sunday.
The British Broadcasting Corporation’s documentary, “India: The Modi Question”, has created a storm not only in India but also among the Indian diaspora.
Due to the sensitive nature of the documentary, the Government of India has banned it from being shown in the country. It has also been removed from Youtube due to its divisive content and fear of creating hatred between communities over events that happened two decades ago. Indian courts have already given their verdict and sentenced the people of both the communities for the violence.
London-based consultant Adit Kothari, who has been active in the diaspora movement, says the British Indian diaspora is angry, incensed and frustrated by the BBC’s deliberate attempts to drive a covert and sometimes malicious anti-India and anti-Hindu agenda. reveals. While with the protest, we may not see any change within BBC to systematically address our concerns but we have to show our displeasure at BBC’s attitude.
The arrival of the documentary after weeks of anti-Hindu violence in Leicester, Britain’s tenth largest city, has excited the diaspora.
The communal violence, which took British society and the local police by surprise, was directed at Hindu symbols and houses by local Muslim youths. Weeks of attacks on Leicester’s Hindus led to many families moving out of the city due to threats and fear.
British Hindus feel that the BBC documentary will create a similar situation in which Hindus may again be targeted due to biased coverage.
Activists say the protest against the BBC is meant to raise awareness of the BBC’s failures regarding its journalistic standards and royal charter—which aims to provide fair, high-quality and specialized journalism to its viewers.
The BBC documentary has evoked strong reactions in Indian society.
Lord Rami Ranger, the well-known British MP in the House of Lords, wrote a letter of condemnation to Tim Davey, director-general of the BBC, noting, among other things, that the timing of the BBC documentary is appalling, given that India and the UK are working for it. are doing. Under a free trade agreement, India has assumed the presidency of the G20 and the UK has an Indian-origin prime minister.
In his letter, Lord Ranger says, the producer has shown a lack of vision, common sense and judgment by producing such an insensitive one-sided documentary.
In India too, dozens of bureaucrats, retired officers and judges have written an open letter calling the BBC documentary an illusion of British imperial resurgence.
Several other individuals have started petitions on the website change.org demanding an independent investigation into the BBC’s actions. Many smell a conspiracy as the diverse nation of nearly 1.4 billion people goes to the polls in 2024, saying the BBC is trying to vary the pitch against Modi.
A petition has also been filed against the BBC in the British Parliament, demanding an inquiry into its anti-Hindu propaganda and hate attacks on the Hindu community.
,With inputs from IANS,
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