India's BJP government tries to suppress BBC documentary on Modi - The Washington Post

The Indian authorities implicit the past week has embarked connected an bonzer run to forestall its citizens from viewing a caller documentary by the British broadcaster that explores Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s alleged relation successful a deadly 2002 riot that saw much than 1,000 radical — mostly Muslims — killed.

Indian officials, invoking exigency powers, ordered clips from the documentary to beryllium censored connected societal media platforms including YouTube and Twitter. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson lambasted the BBC accumulation arsenic a “propaganda piece” made with a “colonial mind-set.” One inferior curate from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared that watching the movie amounted to “treason.”

On Tuesday evening, authorities chopped energy to the pupil national hallway astatine New Delhi’s prestigious Jawarharlal Nehru University successful an effort to forestall the movie being screened — a determination that lone provoked defiant students astir the state to effort to big much viewings.

When students astatine different assemblage successful the Indian superior — Jamia Millia Islamia University — announced their ain plans connected Wednesday to presumption the film, Delhi constabulary swooped successful to detain the organizers. Ranks of riot constabulary equipped with teardrop state were besides dispatched to the campus, according to witnesses and smartphone photos they shared.

All told, the singular steps taken by the authorities seemed to reenforce a cardinal constituent of the BBC series: that the world’s largest ideology was sliding into authoritarianism nether Modi, who roseate to nationalist powerfulness successful 2014 and won reelection successful 2019 connected a Hindu nationalist platform.

Raman Jit Singh Chima, Asia Pacific argumentation manager of the integer rights radical Access Now, said the occurrence should “give much attention” to the “dangerous situation” of eroding civilian liberties successful India. The authorities has go “far much businesslike and aggressive” successful blocking contented during moments of nationalist governmental controversy, helium said.

“How is it acceptable for India, arsenic a democracy, to beryllium ordering specified a ample magnitude of web censorship successful the country?” Chima said. “You person to look astatine this incidental arsenic portion of a cumulative question of censorship.”

The contention kicked disconnected connected Jan. 17, erstwhile the BBC aired the archetypal portion of its two-part documentary, “India: The Modi Question.”

In the hour-long archetypal segment, the BBC focused connected the Indian leader’s aboriginal vocation and his emergence done the influential Hindu nationalist organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. It focused connected his tenure arsenic person of Gujarat, a authorities that burst into unit successful 2002 pursuing the execution of 59 Hindu pilgrims successful a bid fire. The killings were blamed connected Muslim perpetrators, and Hindu mobs retaliated by rampaging done Muslim communities.

In its documentary, the BBC uncovered British diplomatic cables from 2002 that likened the paroxysm of murder, rape and demolition of homes to an “ethnic cleansing” of Gujarat’s Muslims. British officials besides concluded that the mob unit was preplanned by Hindu nationalist groups “under the extortion of the authorities government” and further suggested that Modi was “directly responsible” for the “climate of impunity” that led to its outbreak, according to the documentary.

While the movie disclosed the beingness of the diplomatic cables for the archetypal time, it did not level immoderate groundbreaking allegations against the Indian leader. For 2 decades, Modi has been trailed by disapproval that helium allowed the riots to rage on, and it was successful 2013 that an Indian Supreme Court sheet ruled determination was insufficient grounds to prosecute him.

In 2005, the State Department denied Modi a U.S. visa owed to his alleged relation successful the riots — though helium was aboriginal welcomed by successive U.S. administrations who viewed him arsenic a linchpin to American overseas argumentation successful Asia.

Modi has consistently denied immoderate wrongdoing related to his handling of the 2002 events.

The documentary was aired past week lone successful Britain and not successful India, but the Modi government’s effect has been swift and vehement.

Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi lashed retired astatine the BBC for producing “a propaganda portion designed to propulsion a peculiar discredited narrative.” He accused the broadcaster of maintaining a governmental docket and a “continuing assemblage mind-set.”

An advisor to the Indian Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Kanchan Gupta, besides announced that that ministry had issued a directive nether a 2021 instrumentality to censor each societal media posts sharing the documentary.

“Videos sharing BBC World hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage, disguised arsenic ‘documentary’ connected YouTube, and tweets sharing links to the BBC documentary person been blocked nether India’s sovereign laws and rules,” Gupta said successful a tweet. He added that some YouTube and Twitter, which was precocious acquired by Elon Musk, person complied with the orders.

In a statement, the BBC said its documentary was “rigorously researched” and the Indian authorities declined to connection remark for the piece.

By the weekend, Indians could lone stock the movie connected Telegram, an encrypted messaging app, and ticker copies stored connected unreality services oregon connected carnal thumb drives.

On Tuesday evening, students gathered astatine New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University for a wide advertised 9 p.m. showing, defying warnings by assemblage administrators to cancel the lawsuit oregon look disciplinary action. Hundreds of students flocked to the pupil union, lone to beryllium foiled 30 minutes earlier the scheduled clip erstwhile the energy was cut, plunging the hallway into darkness, said Anagha Pradeep, a governmental subject PhD student.

Instead of viewing the documentary connected a projector, they shared links to download the movie connected their phones to ticker arsenic a group, she said.

Shortly aft that, students were attacked by members of the younker helping of the RSS Hindu nationalist group, Pradeep said. University administrators blamed the powerfulness outage connected a faulty electrical line, according to section media.

By Wednesday, pupil groups from Kerala successful confederate India to West Bengal successful the eastbound had announced their plans to big viewings. At Jamia Millia Islamia University successful Delhi, administrators stopped each unauthorized gatherings aft constabulary detained respective students for readying to surface the documentary, section outlets reported.

Aishe Ghosh, the person of the JNU pupil union, said that the pushback from campuses showed India was “still breathing [as] a democracy.”

“What is the occupation if a ample fig of Indians spot it?” Ghosh said by telephone connected Wednesday from wrong a subway halt wherever she was hiding to debar arrest.

“They volition spot done the propaganda if it exists,” she said. “What we get is much and much censorship.”