BBC DOCUMENTARY: Another Chapter in Western Media’s Bias against Modi

Months after the Supreme Court upheld the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) report on the 2002 Gujarat riots, BBC, a national broadcaster of the UK, has released a 2 part- documentary series calling Narendra Modi directly responsible for the communal violence. The documentary highlights a previously unpublished report obtained by the BBC from the British Foreign Office.

Commenting on the documentary, an official spokesperson of the External Affairs Ministry said, “The documentary is a reflection on the agency that has made it. We think it is a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, lack of objectivity, and continuing colonial mindset are blatantly visible. Can’t dignify such a film”.

The Western media has always painted Modi as a modern-day ‘Hitler.’ The mainstream media in the West, including the liberal outposts, is quick to denounce unfriendly non-Western politicians as dictators. They find allies in propaganda outlets from India who have spent the past decade making Modi appear like a fascist. In fact, when these media houses are called out for their biased narrative, they counter it with ‘Modi is against the freedom of speech.’

According to a research paper published in the Indian Institute of Mass Communication’s Journal Communicator titled “An Analysis of Global Coverage of Events in India,” the western media produces news that is entirely prejudiced to gain from the market while at the same time pushing their agendas. What western media fails to understand is that the times have changed now. An average Indian will not blindly follow your fabricated stories. Instead, they want the accountability of political opinions being reported as news.

The timing of BBC’s ‘Modi Question’ raises a legitimate question. Why is the issue of Modi’s responsibility for the Gujarat riots of 2002 being raised after 20 years? At present, there is stability in the Indian government, and the economy is in a better condition compared to most western countries, especially considering the pandemic. India’s G20 presidency seems to have stirred an uproar in the West. They seem to have been offended seeing a third-world country rising towards being a superpower. And is not even the first time that Modi has been accused by these so-called saviors of democracy. Maybe BBC should have instead focused on the rising inflation grappling Europe.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has come out in support of PM Modi and said that he disagrees with Imran Hussain’s allegations on the same. For long, anti-India lobbies and agencies have been working together to bring down Indian democracy. The Opposition in India and lobbies in the West have formed a union to think it is well within their rights to give opinions on the internal affairs of India to maintain their global political hegemony.

The rapid rise of India’s stature on the international platform has brought about a desperate bid to discredit the Indian success story. While it is entirely acceptable to criticize the Prime Minister in a democracy, such criticism has to be grounded in fact rather than bias.