The BBC received a notification from the Delhi High Court on Monday in a defamation case involving their documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The two-part BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question,’ which is outlawed in India, claims to have looked into the details surrounding the riots that took place in Gujarat in 2002, when PM Modi was the chief government of the region.
The BBC received the notification as a result of a defamation lawsuit brought by the Gujarat-based NGO ‘Justice on Trial.’
For the NGO, senior attorney Harish Salve said that the documentary ‘defamed’ India and the entire system, including the judicial branch.
In September, Justice Sachin Datta issued a summons and scheduled the case for further review.
‘It is contended that the said documentary makes defamatory imputations and caste slurs on the reputation of the country and the judiciary, and against the Prime Minister of India. Issue notice to the respondents through all permissible modes,’ Justice Datta said.
The BBC documentary about Prime Minister Modi was prohibited in January by the BJP government. Links to the documentary had been ordered to be blocked on Twitter and YouTube by the organisation.
The documentary was derided by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) as a ‘propaganda piece’ that lacked objectivity and had a colonial mentality.
‘We think this is a propaganda piece. This has no objectivity. This is biased. Do note that this hasn’t been screened in India. We don’t want to answer more on this so that it doesn’t get much dignity,’ MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said earlier.
Post Your Comments