BBC’s Prejudiced Colonial Mindset

The Centre has rightly issued directions to block YouTube videos sharing the first episode of the BBC documentary ‘India: the Modi question’. The I&B ministry has also directed Twitter to block over 50 tweets with links to these YouTube videos. This is uncharacteristic of the Indian position towards free speech and the press. Why did the Modi government take this strong step?
It is only because the BBC has been reduced to a rabidly anti-India, anti-Modi mouthpiece, with a strong, prejudiced, colonial mindset. Through this documentary, the BBC is seeking to launch a smear campaign against Narendra Modi in the run-up to the elections, question India’s sovereignty, and also create fissures in Indian society, in line with the colonial vision of divide and rule.
Meanwhile, 302 signatories including retired judges and veterans came out strongly against the agenda-driven BBC propaganda documentary. They aptly described it as “the staple, dyed-in-the-wool negativity, and “unrelenting prejudice of the BBC toward India”, which has found expression once again in this documentary. They rightly pointed out that the documentary presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India’s existence as an independent democratic nation, a nation that functions according to the will of the people of India. The distortions in the documentary are far too many and do not require to be dignified by detailed analysis. In recent years, especially since the BJP came to power at the Centre, the BBC, as also other Western media outlets have been stridently critical of the ruling party, as also Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BBC’s coverage of the Delhi riots and the Covid-19 pandemic in India leaves much to be desired. It was patently, one-sided, and hopelessly biased, to say the least.
The timing of the BBC documentary cannot be lost upon anyone because it ties in with its intention and agenda to paint India and Narendra Modi in a bad light. Both the UK and certainly the BBC would still be smarting under the humiliation of India overtaking Britain as the fifth largest economy in the world, as also assuming the G20 presidency. The BBC’s hatchet job or hit job on Narendra Modi comes at a time when general elections are one year away and assembly polls in 9 states are due this year. The documentary relies on voices that would tie in with their agenda, and then dress the documentary up in a manner that suited the BBC’s partisan stand. It was as if the BBC had already arrived at a conclusion and then went about building its documentary to arrive at this end.
It is widely known that the BBC is a part of an ecosystem in the West that is out to discredit both India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In this it is actively aided by a section of India’s so-called liberals, and what is known as the “Khan Market Gang or Lutyens media.” Make no mistake—when PM Modi keeps reiterating the dangers posed by the “Tukde-Tukde gang”, they are real. The colonial mindset of the BBC and its policy of divide and rule can hardly work in a country like India, which is growing rapidly economically and industrially while Britain is grappling with recession and unemployment. The BBC would do well to look at some of its cities where “grooming gangs” have made a reputation of sorts for themselves.