India’s war on the BBC

BBC documentary India: The Modi Question, the second part of which airs tonight, has had a muted reaction in Britain. But the same cannot be said for India, where the country’s government has invoked emergency laws to block the broadcast of the programme.

The Modi Question focuses on the trouble that broke out in the western Indian state of Gujarat back in early 2002: at least 1,000 people, many of them Muslim, died during the riots. The violence erupted after 59 Hindu pilgrims, including women and children, died on a train that had been set on fire. The incident was blamed on members of the Muslim community – and the country’s PM Narendra Modi, who was then chief minister of Gujarat, was accused of not doing enough to quell the violence that lasted for a few days.

But if Modi was indeed slow to respond then, his government’s reaction to the BBC show has been swift.