Supreme Court to consider petitions against ban on BBC documentary on Modi
People watch the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question on a screen located at the Marine Drive junction under the direction of the district Congress committee in Kochi on January 24, 2023. PHOTO AFP NEW DELHI - India's Supreme Court will consider a petition next week against a government order blocking the sharing of clips from a BBC documentary questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership during riots in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat.
The government has removed any clips from the film, which was released last week as a biased propaganda piece, and blocked the sharing of it on social media.
Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said in court on Monday that the Supreme Court will take up the petitions next week.
A New Delhi-based lawyer, M L Sharma, opposed the move by the government to send one of the petitions to the Supreme Court.
A separate petition by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, journalist N. Ram and opposition politician Mahua Moitra focused on the order to remove social media links to the documentary.
In a Twitter comment on the second petition, the Minister for Justice Kiren Rijiju said: This is how they waste the precious time of the Honourable Supreme Court, where thousands of citizens are waiting and seeking dates for justice. ALSO READ: India police detain students gathered for a BBC documentary on Modi by the BBC.
Modi, who aims for a third term in elections next year, was chief minister of Gujarat in February 2002 when a suspected Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims.
One of the worst outbreaks of religious bloodshed in independent India was caused by the incident.
In reprisal attacks around the state, more than 1,000 people were killed, most of them Muslim, as crowds roamed the streets for days, targeting the religious minority. The toll was more than twice that, at about 2,500, according to activists.
On January 25, 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi waits for the arrival of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Hyderabad house in New Delhi, India. PHOTO AP Modi denied accusations that he did not do enough to stop the riots. He was exonerated in 2012 after an inquiry by the Supreme Court and a petition by the Supreme Court that questioned his exoneration was dismissed last year.
READ MORE: India blocks BBC documentary on PM Modi from airing.
The BBC said that the documentary was rigorously researched and involved a wide range of voices and opinions, including responses from people in Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.