Rigorously researched: BBC defends documentary on PM Modi

While making the collection, the UK’s nationwide broadcaster approached a spread of voices, the BBC stated in a press release.

New Delhi,UPDATED: Jan 20, 2023 19:38 IST

The documentary on PM Narendra Modi has been dismissed by India (File)

By India Today Web Desk: The BBC defended its documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “rigorously researched”, which sought to spotlight vital points. This comes a day after India criticized the programme as a “propaganda piece” missing objectivity.

“The documentary was rigorously researched according to the highest editorial standards,” a BBC spokesperson stated in a press release, reported information company PTI.

While making the collection, the UK’s nationwide broadcaster approached a spread of voices, the assertion added.

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“A wide range of voices, witnesses and experts were approached, and we have featured a range of opinions. This includes responses from people in the BJP. We offered the Indian government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series. It declined to respond,” it additional stated.

The BBC stated it was dedicated to highlighting vital points from around the globe and the documentary collection examines the “tensions between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority and explores the politics of India’s PM Narendra Modi in relation to those tensions”.

The assertion comes a day after UK PM Rishi Sunak got here out in defence of PM Modi, shutting down Pakistani-origin Labour MP Imran Hussain, who requested if the British premier agreed with the claims made by the BBC programme that some UK Foreign Office diplomats believed that “Modi was directly responsible (for the Gujarat riots)”.

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“The UK government’s position on that is clear and long-standing, and it has not changed,” Sunak stated. “Of course, we do not tolerate persecution anywhere, but I am not sure that I agree at all with the characterisation that the honorable gentleman has put forward,” the British prime minister said.

INDIA’S RESPONSE

India condemned the BBC Panorama programme, which has not been screened in India, and dismissed it as a propaganda piece with a questionable agenda behind it.

“We think that this is a propaganda piece, designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset is blatantly visible,” overseas workplace spokesperson Arindam Bagchi informed reporters throughout a press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday when requested concerning the controversial collection.

Meanwhile, a number of members of the Indian diaspora within the UK have despatched in complaints to the BBC over the characterisation of PM Modi within the collection.

(With enter from PTI)

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Published On:

Jan 20, 2023