New Delhi: Senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Mahesh Jethmalani on Friday alleged that the controversial BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ is a “Chinese-inspired initiative” as he stressed how the BBC is “completely financially interlocked with China through Chinese state-owned companies”.
“This is showing that BBC is completely financially interlocked with China, through Chinese state-owned companies. The documentary basically is nothing more than a Chinese-inspired initiative,” the BJP leader said, as per news agency ANI.
“More than 150 million pounds is being placed with Chinese state-owned companies. So they are completely financially dependent on them and they have a long history of anti-India output propaganda,” he added.
ALSO READ | Domestic Abusers Can Now Own Guns Too, US Appeals Court Rules
This comes after the UK government defended the BBC as a media outlet “independent in its output“ in the wake of widespread Indian diaspora protests against the controversial documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing reporters at Downing Street on Wednesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson echoed a statement issued by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in Parliament to add that the government continues to invest in its relationship with India.
“The BBC is independent in its output and we would stress that we continue to regard India as an incredibly important international partner,” the spokesperson said in response to a question about India’s condemnation of the documentary questioning the then-chief minister’s role in the 2002 Godhra riots, news agency PTI reported.
“We will be investing heavily in our relationship with India over the coming decades and we’re confident it will only go from strength to strength,” the spokesperson added.
Notably, the Supreme Court asked petitioners to mention again on Friday for urgent listing of their plea seeking a complete ban on the British Broadcasting Corporation in India for its controversial documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud told the lawyer appearing for the petitioner to mention the matter on Friday.
The top court was hearing a plea filed by Vishnu Gupta, president of Hindu Sena, and Beerendra Kumar Singh, a farmer, which has also sought a probe against the BBC and its employees.
Accusing the BBC of being biased against India and the Indian government, the plea alleged that the documentary on Prime Minister Modi is a result of a deep conspiracy against the global rise of India and its prime minister.
“The documentary film by BBC relating to Gujarat violence 2002 implicating Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not only reflective of anti-Narendra Modi cold propaganda broadcast to tarnish his image alone but this is anti-Hinduism propaganda by BBC to destroy the social fabric of India,” the plea stated, as quoted by PTI.
On January 21, the Union government issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the controversial documentary.