Over 300 eminent citizens slam BBC documentary on PM Modi; call out its bias & colonial mindset

New Delhi: Amid the raging controversy over BBC documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question’, more than 300 eminent citizens of the country have written an open letter to Britain’s state-sponsored broadcaster and denounced its agenda & propaganda based series.

The panel of eminent citizens, which called out BBC for coming up with a fake narrative to discredit PM Modi, included 13 retired Judges, scores of bureaucrats and more than 150 retired Armed Forces officers.

The 302 signatories to the letter, took strong objection to agenda based documentary and said that it reeked of a colonial & imperial mindset and laced with ulterior motives.

Calling out BBC’s anti-Modi narrative, it said that inspite of making documentary titled, “India: The Modi Question”, the news broadcaster should rather highlight its own bias & prepare something like, “BBC: The Ethical Question”.

Yesterday, the Indian government also slammed the BBC documentary and called it a propaganda piece lacking objectivity and aimed at furthering its own vested interests.

Meanwhile, the British corporation has defended its new series and claimed that it is well-researched and not based on hearsay, as being claimed by critics.

Rebutting the baseless & fictional allegations in documentary, the open letter said that by producing such series, they want to continue British Raj’s policy of ‘divide & rule’ and termed this series as latest means to resurrect Hindu-Muslim divide.

“Not only is the BBC series based on delusional and evidently lopsided reporting, but it presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India’s existence as an independent, democratic nation,” the letter said in a searing remark.

The letter said that the then Modi government in Gujarat faced volley of attacks from political rivals but after years of painstaking investigation, it was granted clean chit from the highest court of land. The Supreme Court had dismissed the charges against Modi as ‘ultra-sensational revelations’ and laced with an intention to target the then dispensation.

“Despite the clean chit, the BBC, thriving on sensationalism, has resorted to rhetoric & dismissed the verdict of India’s Apex Court. By doing this, BBC is showing its own malafides and that leads to question – what motivated the BBC to prepare this series,” the letter said.

The eminent luminaries also sought a citizens’ movement against the biased & propaganda-based series of BBC to prove their point.