Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Feb 10: The Supreme Court on Friday summarily dismissed a petition by the Hindu Sena president seeking for a complete ban on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) functioning for its recent two part documentary on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots when he was the chief minister of his home state.
A Bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M.M. Sundresh held as “absolutely misconceived” the petition filed by Vishnu Gupta which also sought a court order for an investigation into the broadcaster and its employees’ “anti-India and anti-Indian government” reportage and films.
“How can a documentary affect the country,” the Supreme Court questioned. “Completely misconceived, how can this be argued also? You want us to put complete censorship? What is this?” asked the two-judge bench.
Senior lawyer Pinki Anand, representing the petitioner, argued that the BBC was “deliberately maligning India’s image”. The petition also asked for an investigation by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the “conspiracy” behind the documentary.
The documentary is a “result of deep conspiracy against global rise of India and its Prime Minister,” the petition said. “The documentary film by BBC relating to Gujarat violence 2002 implicating Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not only reflective of anti-Narendra Modi cold propaganda broadcast to tarnish his image alone but this is anti-Hinduism propaganda by the BBC to destroy the social fabric of India,” it alleged.
The petition claimed the BBC film was surreptitiously intended to disturb the peace and national integrity in the country which has led to “India’s overall growth since 2014 under the Prime Ministership of Sh. Narendra Modi.” It said an “anti-India lobby and media, particularly the BBC, cannot digest the national growth and seemed to be biased. A representation to the Home Ministry on January 27 has so far not yielded a response”, the petitioner said.
The Court, however, said there was no merit in the petition and rejected it. The judges said: “Let us not waste any more time. The writ petition is entirely misconceived and has no merit. Thus, dismissed.”
The two-part BBC series, “India: The Modi Question”, was taken down from public platforms last month. On January 21, the Centre, using emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules, 2021, directed blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the controversial documentary.
The Supreme Court earlier this month served notice to the Centre on petitions including by veteran journalist N Ram, activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan, and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, which asks that the Centre be stopped from censoring the documentary.
The petitions challenge the use of emergency powers to block the documentary and remove links from social media. The Centre never formally publicised the blocking order, said a separate petition by lawyer ML Sharma calling the ban on the two-part documentary “malafide, arbitrary, and unconstitutional.” The petitioners say the Centre has to publish the emergency blocking orders within 48 hours.
The documentary has been shared by various opposition leaders, including Mahua Moitra, and students’ organisations and opposition parties have organised public screenings. Students clashed with college authorities and the police in several campuses after not being allowed to hold screenings.
The government calls the documentary a “propaganda piece” that lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset. A Supreme Court-appointed investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing by PM Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat when riots broke out across the state in February 2002.
