UK lawmaker Lord Karan Bilimoria referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “one of the most powerful persons on the planet” amid the ongoing BBC documentary row.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (L) and UK lawmaker Lord Karan Bilimoria (R) (Photo: PTI/Twitter)
By Ritika: Amid the ongoing controversy of the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question”, UK lawmaker Lord Karan Bilimoria referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as “one of the most powerful persons on the planet”. The documentary deals with the riots that broke out in Gujarat when Narendra Modi was the chief minister.
“To conclude, as a boy, Narendra Modi sold tea at his father’s tea stall at a railway station in Gujarat. Today he is one of the most powerful people on this planet as Prime Minister of India,” the Indian-origin UK MP Lord Karan Bilimoria said during a Parliament debate.
“Today India has the presidency of the G20. Today India has the vision to become, in the next 25 years, the second-largest economy in the world with a GDP of USD 32 billion. The Indian Express has left the station. It is now the fastest train in the world–the fastest-growing major economy in the world. The UK must be its closest and most trusted friend and partner in the decades ahead,” he said.
The lawmaker noted that India is going from strength to strength, including during the pandemic when it produced billions of vaccines, with the Serum Institute of India partnering with Oxford University and AstraZeneca. Bilimoria is a native of Hyderabad and his family hails from Navsari district in Gujarat.
BBC DOCUMENTARY ROW
A controversy erupted after BBC’s two-part series called “India: The Modi Question”, was released last week and clips of it have gone viral since then provoking sharp reactions. The documentary questions PM Modi’s leadership as the state CM during the 2002 Gujarat riots when violence broke out following the burning of a train carrying Hindu pilgrims in Godhra. The 2002 Gujarat riots had killed over 1,000 people, most of them Muslims.
The BBC documentary has received severe criticism from all quarters and has been taken down from YouTube. It cannot be viewed in India.
India has described the BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots as a “propaganda piece” designed to push a particular “discredited narrative”. The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset are blatantly visible, India said.
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also defended PM Modi after a controversial BBC documentary. When a Pak-origin British MP brought the topic up in the UK parliament, Sunak said he does not agree with the characterisation of PM Modi.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos which published the first episode of the BBC Documentary. They said that orders were also issued to Twitter for blocking over 50 tweets pertaining to the link to the BBC series. Both YouTube and Twitter have complied with the directions, sources said.
Union Law Minister said in a tweet, “Some people in India are still not over the colonial intoxication. They consider BBC above the Supreme Court of India and lower the country’s dignity and image to any extent to please their moral masters. We can’t hope for anything better than these tukde tukde gang members whose only aim is to weaken the might of India.”
