: Why India Is Using Emergency Laws to Ban a Documentary About Prime Minister Modi #WorldNEWS Last Tuesday, the British Broadcasting Corporation released the first episode of “The Modi Question,”

Why India Is Using Emergency Laws to Ban a Documentary About Prime Minister Modi #WorldNEWS
Last Tuesday, the British Broadcasting Corporation released the first episode of “The Modi Question,” a two-part documentary series that tracks how the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi climbed the political ranks of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party during his time as the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat.
The documentary was originally broadcasted in the U. K. , but it quickly generated hype in India after unauthorized video clips began circulating on social media platforms, reminding viewers of Modi’s controversial role in the 2002 Gujarat riots—and prompting the Indian government this week to block it from being aired on Indian platforms.

What is the documentary about?
The 59-minute documentary takes an in-depth look at the 2002 Gujarat riots—one of the worst outbreaks of religious violence in India since the country’s Independence in 1947. It traces how the riots erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims in the northern state of Gujarat was set on fire and killed 59 people. The Muslim community was held allegedly responsible for the incident, leading to heightened retaliatory attacks and the deaths of over 1,000 Muslims.
The riots took place under Modi’s watch, who at the time was Gujarat’s Chief Minister. Raw and chilling footage reveals how the police stood by as Hindu mobs attacked Muslims and religious attacks took hold of the state.

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Why is the documentary so controversial?
In India and abroad, questions about Modi’s complicity in abetting the violence have generated controversy for decades, but the BBC documentary goes a step further in highlighting his role through expert commentary — it reveals that a previously unpublished report from the British Foreign Office held Modi directly responsible for the climate of impunity that enabled the violence and said it had “all the hallmarks of an ethnic cleansing. ” The BBC also uncovers other memos by the British government and Western diplomats, including the former British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, who unequivocally criticizes Modi’s conduct at the time.
However, the documentary also features interviews with former BJP politicians who support Modi and strongly deny his involvement in the riots. They cite the Indian Supreme Court’s verdict in 2013, which stated that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him.
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According to Kenneth Roth, the former executive director of the NGO Human Rights Watch, Gujarat has always been one of the most sensitive issues for Modi because he demonstrated “passivity in the face of large-scale ethnic violence.