Unlike the unparallel, unconditional and unproportionate level of promotion and propagation given to the movie Kashmir Files, the Indian government has banned BBC film on ‘Gujarat Riots’ in India as it holds PM Narendra Modi squarely responsible for the massacre of Muslims – a state sponsored pogrom hunting PM Modi since 2002.
The Supreme Court once commented while hearing the Gujarat Riots case quoted writer George Daniel that “When Rome was burning, Nero was busy playing flute.” The BBC documentary over Gujarat Riots affirm that the then Chief Minister “Narendra Modi was busy in preventing officials from meddling in the issue while the Hindu rioters were let loose in the state to slaughter Muslims. Later, the Supreme Court acquitted PM Modi from all charges.
Now, the BBC documentary too creates a flutter again in India while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejects the report simply by dubbing it as mere propaganda made with specific narrative influenced with colonial mindset.
Zafar Sareshwala, Former Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University and the famous entrepreneur of Gujarat, while commenting over the documentary during an interview to a Hindi channel on Saturday said, “I have read the report earlier. We have raised our voices against the brutality in the past to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice.”
However, he said, we never say at any point of time that PM Modi, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, was responsible for the massacre. “What we said squarely is that the riots happened under the Chief Ministership of Narendra Modi. Either you (PM Modi) brought us the desired justice or atleast come up openly before the public,” he argued.
Recalling that the whole documentary was based on the report presented to Jack Straw, the then Foreign Minister of UK after Gujarat Riots Sareshwala said, “There is nothing new in the Documentary. The BBC team was also the part of visiting media persons at the post Gujarat Riots and covered everything besides recorded testimonies of the victims. Even me and my family are the primary victims of the riots wherein my house, factories and offices were burned down by the mindless mobs.”
“The documentary was shown earlier too, not just by the BBC but a few other channels too. It was not new content at all. All the things narrated in the documentary have already been talked about and blamed by the local NGOs working to highlight the Gujarat massacre. The report clearly held PM Modi responsible for the carnage,” he asserted.
