India has been the seat of controversies for a long time now. The nation has gone through several ups and downs and this was quite clearly visible in front of the world as well. The entire world had been looking at the ways in which Narendra Modi and his cronies were able to take over the entire psyche of the Indian population and establish their strong rule, despite the immense number of controversies. 

The new controversy arose when the BBC released a documentary about Narendra Modi and his role in the Gujarat riots. Ever since the documentary has been released, the Indian government which is formed and ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party has tried its best to ban the movie! 

Banning The Movie In Different States Under Accusation Of Blasphemy 

Banning any movie or documentary is nothing new for the BJP-ruled state of India. It has been seen in the past that anything in the form of multimedia that is against the wishes or perspective of the government of India, is automatically banned, either legally or by force in different parts of the nation. 

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has already issued a number of statements that seek to ban the video related to the documentary on YouTube. The movie has been circulating in the Indian media through YouTube and Twitter links. The ministry responsible for social media handling is trying its best at the moment to delete this video from all sources. 

BBC has brought forward a two-part film, India: The Modi Question. As claimed by the documentary, this movie has looked into the role and works of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in the Gujarat riots of 2002. The government has claimed that this is one of the hate movies which has been made by external forces in order to malign the good name of the nation in front of other countries. The documentary has been banned in several states of India and the central government is presently putting several efforts to make sure that people are not able to watch this movie in India. 

Dismissal Of This Movie

The Indian government has dismissed this movie as a threat of propaganda that seeks to malign the nation, and several students, politicians, and activists are trying to gain access to this movie. Lawyers and people from the rival parties are trying their best to spread the links which can help others to see this movie. 

BBC on the other hand has claimed that they made this movie after undergoing the utmost form of research. They are quite aware that they are attacking one of the most prominent leaders of world politics at the moment. They would never even try to release something which has half-baked information. 

BBC has also mentioned that they have asked and interviewed several people who had to suffer in the Gujarat riots and assimilated their statements in order to design this documentary. They had even questioned the workers under BJP and asked their opinions on the Gujarat riots. This helped them to gather every bit of information about the state of Gujarat during the riots in 2002. They are also quite clear about the fact that their data is accurate with respect to the activities of Narendra Modi. 

An Effort To Remind About The Past

BBC has made an effort to remind the people of the world in 2023 about the riots which took place in Gujarat in 2002. It has been claimed that the riots began in the state of Gujarat because of the burning of an express train. The chief minister of the state at that time was Narendra Modi. It has been claimed by several people that he had taken no efforts to stop the violence which had erupted against the Muslims during this time. 

This accusation had rung true for several years but the Supreme Court of India had absolved Modi of this crime. However, the data which has been brought forward by the British Broadcasting Channel BBC has stated damning evidence of Modi being directly responsible. 

One of the secret UK government reports has also stated that ethnic cleansing of Muslims in the Gujarat riots had been one of the ways in which Modi had been responsible. The innumerous rapes of Muslim women and Hindus in the Muslim-dominated areas of Gujarat had been incited by him through his speeches and other activities within the state. More than 1,000 Muslims lost their lives in the Gujarat riots. 

Atrocities Of Police On Students 

What is even more devastating is that the government is still bent on harming those who are trying to get a glimpse of this documentary. The BJP government is already known all over the world for the state of divisive politics it plays. The students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University or JNU had tried to watch this movie as a form of protest and they had been detained by the state police. 

This is quite infuriating as the state does not get to control what the people within a democratic land watch. The events of these banning and violence have become prominent just before the Republic Day of India. This has led to major issues with the accountability of the government! The same events have been observed in the Jamia Millia Islamia University as well where a number of students who are involved in the left organizations are arrested in accusation of riots for watching this movie!

Conclusion 

This is not the first time that India has banned a documentary from the BBC. Earlier, the nation had also banned India’s Daughter, the documentary on the horrific rape case of Nirbhaya in Delhi. This had been banned because it sought to ruin the reputation of the nation and ended up being even more famous because of the true content. It is to be seen whether the new documentary on Modi will be receiving much attention or not!