External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that the BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “politics by other means”.
Speaking to ANI in a podcast show, Jaishankar said, “There’s a phrase – war by other means. Think of it – this is politics by other means. Why is there suddenly a surge of reports, attention, and views? Will some of these things not happen again?”
The controversial two-part BBC documentary titled ‘India: The Modi Question’ released in January focused on the alleged role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots. On January 21, the union government invoked its emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules and asked Twitter and Youtube to take down the links to the documentary.
Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs had called the documentary on January 19 a ‘propaganda piece’ which was designed to push a “particular discredited narrative”.
Jaishankar also questioned the timing of the documentary and said, “I mean, come on, you think timing is accidental! Let me tell you one thing – I don’t know if the election season has started in India, Delhi or not, but, for sure it has started in London, New York.”
He further asked, “Why suddenly there is a surge of reports and attention and views? I mean, were some of these things not happening earlier. Many things happened in Delhi in 1984, why don’t we see a documentary on that? If that was your concern, you suddenly feel one day, “I am very humanistic, I must get justice for people who have been wronged,” said Jaishankar. He was referring to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of the then-prime minister Indira Gandhi.
“This is politics at play by people who do not have the courage to come into the political field. They want to have that teflon cover saying that I am an NGO, media organisation etc. They are playing politics,” Jaishankar asserted.
Jaishankar further asserted that the intention behind such stories is to further anti-India agenda.
When asked about some western media’s “bias” against India, the EAM said, “I mean, do you doubt it? Look who the cheerleaders are. What is happening is, just like I told you — this drip, drip, drip — how do you shape a very extremist image of India, of the government, of the BJP, of the Prime Minister. I mean, this has been going on for a decade.”
“Let’s not have illusions about it…there is an echo chamber, it will be picked outside and then they will say it is being said outside, it must be true. Then you will say it inside. There is a ding-dong going on, look this is a globalized world, people take that politics abroad,” he added.