The BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ questions Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership as the chief minister during the 2002 Gujarat violence that followed the brutal killing of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train coach in Godhra.
The conclusion that the BBC arrives at, after rigorous research on ‘feelings’, ‘views’, ‘think so’ and ‘allegations’, is that Narendra Modi, as the chief minister, was patently responsible for over 1000 deaths in the ensuing Hindu-Muslim violence. The BBC also alleges that there was ethnic cleansing. A report by the British High Commission, prepared while the violence was going on, was an important part of the ‘rigorous research’.
The turn of events has led to a barrage of opinions. Many people who have seen and examined the content of this propagandist documentary have trashed everything the documentary has to say, as it is the complete opposite of what India’s official investigation found and what the Indian Judiciary has pronounced.
India has denounced the BBC documentary series, and described it as a “propaganda piece” designed to push a discredited narrative that shows exposes a colonial mindset.
The government must also ask its UK counterpart and the High Commission in India to stop interfering in our internal matters and indulging in propagandist commentary to instigate communal disharmony. And ask them – How and when did the British High Commission conduct an ‘investigation’ on its own, and from whom did they seek permission?
When the content of the documentary was raised in the House of Commons in Britain, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dismissed the characterization of Modi, stating: “Mr Speaker, the UK government’s position on this has been clear and long standing and hasn’t changed. Of course, we don’t tolerate persecution anywhere, but I am not sure I agree at all with the characterization that the honourable gentleman has put forward.”
The documentary’s prime objective is to portray Narendra Modi, the two times elected Prime Minister of the world’s largest democracy, as a Hindu hardliner who supported the violence. Beyond being a hit job, this “propaganda piece” also insults our Parliament and judiciary, which investigated Modi through a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under its supervision and completely exonerated him from being involved in the Hindu-Muslim violence in any way. It is pertinent to note here that this investigation happened when Modi’s fiercest opposition party (the Congress) was ruling India.
It also reminds me of a spectacle of shamelessness when a British MP, Barry Gardiner, ripped apart the venal agenda of NDTV on a prime time show with Nidhi Razdan. When Nidhi continued to flail her agenda, trying to get Gardiner to acknowledge that Modi is indeed “controversial,” she was caught off-balance when Gardiner took her head on, saying: “…It seems you have no respect for your own Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of India has looked at those allegations, I believe, on a number of occasions. And has absolved Mr Narendra Modi completely from those allegations. For you to be bringing them up on Indian television is extraordinarily strange.” Another nefarious objective behind the documentary seems to be to absolve the role of Islamist extremists who set fire to the Sabarmati express in Godhra, burning 59 innocent Hindus alive, including women, children and infants. 31 Islamists were found guilty and sentenced to life by India’s judiciary. It only illustrates the documentary makers’ sympathy for vile criminals and their use of absurd falsehoods and mental tricks to justify the inexcusable.
History of propaganda
The BBC has been a serial offender. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed for Europe for his four-nation tour of Russia, Germany, Spain, and France, which was aimed at deepening bilateral trade and investment ties and boosting India’s economic engagement with these nations, BBC Hindi came up with a derogatary cartoon.
It is no secret that the BBC has a long history of spreading propaganda instead of news to fashion people’s minds and infest their thoughts. In his book, Persuading the People: British Propaganda in World War II, Professor David Welch highlights the importance of winning ‘hearts and minds’ during the Second World War. Based on the extensive archives in the British Library, Welch explores the successes and failures of the Ministry of Information’s numerous campaigns, for which the BBC was then their primary platform.
When the United States intelligence agencies concluded that there was Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, they opined that the Russian Government used disinformation, data theft, leaks, and social media to provide an advantage to Trump over Clinton.
Another objective behind the documentary seems to be to absolve the role of Islamist extremists who set fire to the Sabarmati Express in Godhra. The judiciary found 31 Islamists guilty and sentenced them to life. It only illustrates the documentary makers’ sympathy for vile criminals and their use of absurd falsehoods to justify the inexcusable
We in India also saw such propaganda flooding during the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections from various foreign media, including the BBC. They might have their analysis, opinion, political leaning, agenda, or other compulsions. But why should a state-owned news agency feel compelled to make derogatory cartoons of our democratically elected leaders?
In 2015 too, the BBC commissioned a documentary titled “India’s Daughter”, where the filmmaker included the interview of one of the rapists of a young woman known as ‘Nirbhaya’. They naturally partnered with Modi’s most vicious opposition in India’s mainstream media – NDTV – where it was due to be aired. What first appalled us all was the callousness of NDTV, which chose to sell a grim documentary with a nauseating advertisement stating: “NDTV proudly presents world premiere interview with a real-life rapist.”
However, NDTV marketing the documentary in a crass, insensible way was only a reflection of their values. It is true that slamming the documentary does not erase these issues, though the entire approach was obnoxious.
As Indians, we were rankled by a British filmmaker’s blanket, derogatory categorization of our people. The BBC made the documentary intending to show down the “natives” and elevate the “white race” by contrast, in which the filmmaker repeatedly indulges in cultural labelling with terms like “sick society” and “diseased culture” to characterize India. I wish the documentary makers had been more interested in the topic than their cultural propaganda. The Government of India eventually intervened and banned the telecast on the ground that it violated various norms.
On the eve of elections in India in 2019, the BBC ran another bogus campaign with the headline “A rising tide of nationalism in India is driving ordinary citizens to spread fake news” based on BBC’s ‘research’. The data source for this so-called research on “fake-news” was social media countering the content of the news. Wrong information that appears on social media is either rumour or forgery, but NOT ‘fake news.’ The definition of “Fake News” is: “Content produced by professional news media outfits that pretends to be news but is not”. That makes the research piece of BBC itself a classic example of Fake News!
Another glaring example of their propaganda is their campaign on Kashmir. The series “The stolen childhoods of Kashmir” is a constant pictorial feed aimed at the emotional mainstreaming of stone-pelters and Islamic Jihad groups.
It leaves me surprised that when Islamic terror groups consistently attack the United Kingdom, why does its official broadcaster want sympathy for terror attacks in India? In 2017, British PM Theresa May said: “I’m clear: if human rights laws get in the way of tackling extremism and terrorism, we will change those laws to keep British people safe.”
And in India, their state-owned broadcaster promotes stories sympathetic to Islamist groups in Kashmir. What kind of duplicity is this?
Why is a news agency owned by a foreign government systematically utilizing the platform to engage in political commentary on our country and indulge in spreading social disharmony? How is it different from Russian “interference” in the US, if not worse?
In today’s day and age, propaganda has become a systematic process and one of the best forms of persuasion used to influence people’s attitudes, behaviour, and beliefs. A simple definition of propaganda is spreading ideas, misinformation, and rumours to damage or defame an individual, an institution, a cause, or a country.
Why did BBC Hindi choose the Kashmir issue? For them it is increasingly important to select subjects where there would be a distinct advantage for the media to exploit emotions by tinting facts. For example, the series on Kashmiri kids takes a subtle approach that attempts to use a subset of social proof that India is a rude, crude, and uncivilised country.
The BBC’s documentary, which claims Modi’s India is in “religious turmoil”, is its latest attempt to destabilise India and create an atmosphere of communal unrest in the country by disputing well-established facts.
It is true that despite its phenomenal public acceptance and following in India, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has always been rejected by one segment of society for which the likes of NDTV or BBC, Time Magazine or New York Times serve the worldview. Their worldview has always been opposed to what the people of India perceive.
The supremacist attitude
This propaganda is not new. Many among the Indian mainstream media have run this falsehood for 12 long years to malign the electorally elected CM of Gujarat, only to serve their political masters. As an outcome, he became the most followed, most respected national leader. As the falsehood and propaganda continue, his stature as a global leader is growing larger and larger.
As pointed out earlier, people suffering from the colonial mindset cannot handle India on its way up, surpassing Britain as the fifth-largest economy in the world. The propaganda war and unethical challenges that PM Modi and his party BJP faces from opposition forces in India are nothing compared to what lies ahead.
The West cannot tolerate a rising India. They can make all the politically correct noises, but the truth is that they will try to derail a resurgent India at every step, more so because PM Modi doesn’t bend to the West. There are countless examples like – the vaccine war, Covid coverage, and attempts to denigrate Hindu culture – all part of an ugly pattern. Geo-political battles are nothing new. India is the latest player in the bigger arena as it is finally shaking off a lot of inherited baggage and beginning to flex.
The only way to defend against such propaganda is to be more alert and aware of the persuasive propaganda tactics and how they shape our beliefs. India should always maintain a good relationship with foreign journalists, but they must be “journalists”. The BBC, New York Times, Washington Post or The Economist are organs of influence and propaganda that spread counterfeit truths. And India must constantly be vigilant.
In the present digital age, the government must learn to pre-empt the propaganda machineries and provide enough facts to the public so that the people can sift the truth from the fiction. Social media platforms must be used to promote healthy discussions based on correct information. The trick is to ensure that the truth circulates more effectively than the falsehoods. The discussion will once again prove what is already known – that the BBC has a deep bias against India. Let the people themselves expose those voicing in its favour.
The government must also ask its counterpart in the UK and the British High Commission in India first to stop interfering in our internal matters and indulging in propagandist political commentary to instigate communal disharmony in our country.
Second, release a full report indicating who, how many, and in what capacity went to Gujarat to do investigations. How and when did the British High Commission conduct such an investigation, and from whom did they seek permission?
India needs to get tough against propagandists and their masters. That’s the only way.
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