UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak strongly defended his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi after an MP tried to bring up the BBC hit piece on the Indian PM during a discussion at the British parliament.
The BBC documentary 'India: The Modi Question', the first part of which aired on BBC Two on January 17, sought to reduce the legacy of Narendra Modi to a mere Hindu-Muslim context, apparently, deliberately avoiding a full spectrum assessment of the 9 years of India under Modi.
India Condemns Biased Story
India officially condemned the BBC piece, saying the propaganda piece does not merit a serious response. "We think this is a propaganda piece. This has no objectivity. This is biased .... The documentary is a reflection of the agency and individuals that are peddling this narrative again. It makes us wonder about the purpose of the exercise and the agenda behind it; frankly, we do wish to dignify these efforts," Indian external affairs ministry spokesman said.
However, the ridiculously shallow reporting of BBC garnered praise from certain quarters. Among them was Pakistan-origin British MP Imran Hussain. The Pak-origin politician raised the BBC hit piece in the British parliament on Thursday and sought the response of the Prime Minister.
"He (PM Modi) was, in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's own words, directly responsible for this violence. Given that hundreds were brutally killed and that families across India and the world, including here in the UK, are still without justice, does the prime minister agree with his diplomats in the foreign office that Modi was directly responsible and what more does the foreign office know of his involvement in this grave act of ethnic cleansing?" Hussain said.
PM Sunak rose to curtly shut down Hussain, saying that his characterization of the Indian prime minister was way off the mark. "The UK government's position on this has been clear and long-standing and hasn't changed, of course, we don't tolerate persecution where it appears anywhere but I am not sure I agree at all with the characterization that the honourable gentleman has put forward to," Sunak said.
