India asks YouTube, Twitter to block links of BBC documentary on Modi
The Indian government has directed Twitter and YouTube to block links sharing a BBC documentary, which takes a critical look at the role of Premier Narendra Modi in the deadly 2002 Gujarat riots, according to media and an adviser to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Multiple videos of the first episode of the BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, and more than 50 tweets with links to the YouTube videos were ordered to be taken down, Kanchan Gupta, senior adviser at Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, tweeted on Saturday.
Kanchan Gupta said that the content was blocked using the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021.
The first episode of the two-part series documentary, which aired on January 17, tracked Modi's early years as a politician and his rise through the ranks of the governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when it was gripped by communal riots that left more than 1,000 people dead- most of them Muslims. The violence erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing 59.
The documentary revealed for the first time a United Kingdom government report into the deadly 2002 religious riots. The UK report said the events had 'all the hallmarks of an ethnic cleansing', the documentary showed.
India's foreign ministry on Thursday dismissed the documentary as a 'propaganda piece'.
Foreign ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said the documentary was meant to push a 'discredited narrative'. He added that a bias, lack of objectivity, and 'continuing colonial mindset' is 'blatantly visible' in it.
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