New Delhi: Retired judges, retired bureaucrats and retired armed forces veterans co-sign a statement rebutting the BBC documentary ‘Delusions of British Imperial Resurrection?’
Some of the excerpts of the letter are: Yet again, the staple, dyed-in-the-wool negativity and unrelenting prejudice of the BBC toward India has resurfaced as a documentary, India: The Modi Question" This production, the BBC claims, has been "rigorously researched according to the highest editorial standards", and "examines the tensions between India's Hindu majority and Muslim minority and explores the politics of India's PM Narendra Modi.
The archetype of British past imperialism in India setting itself up as both judge and jury, to resurrect Hindu-Muslim tensions that were overwhelmingly the creation of the British Raj policy of divide and rule. Not only is the BBC series, judging from what we have seen of it so far, based on delusional and evidently lopsided reporting, but it presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India's existence as an independent, democratic nation, a nation which functions according to the will of the people of India.
Glaring factual errors apart, the series which uses the words 'allegedly' and 'reportedly repeatedly, (not factually)-reeks of motivated distortion that is as mind-numbingly unsubstantiated as it is nefarious. This is demonstrated most vividly by its completely sidelining the core fact: that the apex judicial institution of India, the Supreme Court of India, has unambiguously ruled out any role of Modi in the Gujarat violence of 2002, while firmly rejecting allegations of complicity and inaction by the then Gujarat State government headed by Chief Minister Modi.
In an extensive, 452-page judgement, the Supreme Court had upheld the closure report filed by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) after years of painstaking investigation of the Gujarat riots. It had further unequivocally dismissed allegations made against Mr. Modi and others on the basis of the "ultra-sensational revelations made by police officers RB Sreekumar, Sanjiv Bhatt, and by Haren Pandya, in order to, in the words of the Court, "sensationalise and politicize the matters in issue, although replete with falsehood"
The British media organization, the BBC, which naturally thrives on sensationalism regardless of how false its basis, setting itself up to second guess and dismiss the verdict of the apex of the Indian judiciary, the Supreme Court. This alone exposes the BBC's malafides, and leads one to question the motivations behind this.
Further, Prime Minister Modi's active engagement with every Indian citizen, be it in housing or health or education, is only worthy of approbation and emulation. As an example, the world's largest food assistance programme during the Covid-19 pandemic years for over 800 million people, more than the combined population of the US and the EU was accessible to all, irrespective of their faith. The facts speak for themselves.
Similarly, Article 370 was a temporary provision of the Constitution of India, never meant to be permanent. Thus, its removal was in no manner a violation of constitutional norms. Today there is greater accountability and transparency as the UT governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh implement policies that benefit all the people of the region irrespective of their religion.
The only Muslim-specific measure introduced by PM Modi is meant to protect and empower Muslim women. By introducing a law which prohibits the pernicious system of Triple Talaq, PM Modi has sought to ensure that the dignity, self-respect, and the financial security of our Muslim sisters is uncompromised. The BBC underestimates one thing: the passionate patriotism towards the nation that connects all Indians across the globe. When it comes to our motherland, we Indians stand united. United in principle, and without bias against any of our own.
Like Adit Kothari, founding member of the Indic Society, who has been vociferous against this institutionalized bias, we need to make our voices heard. It is time to let the BBC know that India does not need colonial, imperialistic, somnambulistic outsiders, whose primary claim to fame has been 'divide and rule' under the British Raj, to teach us how to live together in (not with) unity.
Inclusion is inherent in India. Instead of making a documentary titled, "India: The Modi Question", the BBC should begin by questioning their own bias against the Prime Minister Modi (yes, their own too) and make a documentary called, "BBC: The Ethical Question". Join us by signing this petition in the fight against BBC's series. We start it here and we end it here by demonstrating, through our overwhelming "satyagraha', our true might: our patriotism.
