Lord Rami Ranger, a prominent member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom Parliament, has lodged a protest with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) over its ‘insensitive one-sided’ documentary series on PM.
By Swarajya Staff
BBC released a documentary called India: The Modi Question on BBC 2. The first episode of the docu-series was aired on Tuesday and was removed from YouTube on Wednesday. The second part of the series is scheduled to be broadcast on 24 January. The series looks into Narendra Modi’s time as the chief minister of Gujarat.
In a letter to BBC director general Tim Davie, Ranger also questioned the timing of the documentary and sought to know if the BBC’s Pakistani-origin staff was behind the “nonsense” series.
“The timing of this documentary is sinister; when India assumed the Presidency of G20, we have our first Prime Minister of Indian origin in No.10 and we are working for the UK-India free trade agreement,” Ranger wrote.
He said that the producer of the documentary has “shown lack of vision, common sense and judgment by producing such an insensitive one-sided documentary”.
Ranger further complained that the documentary not only insults the two times democratically elected PM of the largest democracy in the world but also the judiciary and Parliament, which investigated Modi rigorously and exonerated him from being involved in the riots in any way.
“I condemn violence and loss of life wherever it takes place, and I equally condemn those stirring up religious hatred in the United Kingdom by bringing up the politics of the subcontinent to the United Kingdom,” he wrote.
Ranger worte that as the chairman of the Pakistan-Indian and UK friendship Forum, he has worked for over 25 years to build bridges between two British communities, of Indian and Pakistani origin, to improve social cohesion in the United Kingdom.
“The BBC documentary has opened old wounds by creating hatred between British Hindus and Muslims by attempting to paint India as an intolerant nation where Muslims are persecuted. If this had been the case, the Muslims would have left India by now. On the contrary, the Muslim population of India is now more than Pakistan’s…” he added.
He also asked BBC to produce documentaries on the Bengal famine and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre under the British rule in India.
Urging the BBC to stop screening the second part of the documentary, Rami Ranger wrote that the second part would exasperate the “already tense situation” between British Hindus and Muslims in many UK cities.
He also asked the BBC DG to confim whether its “Pakistani-origin staff were behind this nonsense”.
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