Sunak's refusal to defend the BBC against Modi is a threat to free speech
Imran Mulla , Peter Oborne
The Tories, usually quick to condemn countries for curbing media power, risk emboldening the premier's authoritarianism at a pivotal moment in India’s history
www.middleeasteye.net
The Tories, usually quick to condemn countries for curbing media power, risk emboldening the premier's authoritarianism at a pivotal moment in India’s history
In recent weeks, UK Labour party leader Keir Starmer has opened up a cruel new attack line against Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
That line says that Sunak is hopelessly weak, that he’s not big enough for the job, and that he’s too slow to deal with bullies. Time after time, Starmer drives these attacks home at Prime Minister’s Questions.
Over the past few weeks, a new bully has appeared on Sunak’s horizon - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And Sunak isn’t standing up to him either.
Modi’s government in India is renowned for brutal attacks on the country’s media. So much so that in 2022 an international media watchdog ranked India 150th out of 180 countries in its index of press freedom. Now the Modi government has turned its fire on the BBC, Britain’s national broadcaster and one of the most respected news organisations in the world.
Shockingly, neither Sunak nor his government has lifted a finger to defend it from the Indian prime minister's assault.
'Hostile propaganda'
Modi is furious with the BBC because in late January it released a two-part documentary on his relationship with India’s 200 million Muslims.
The first episode focused on the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in the western state of Gujarat. The violence, which happened when Modi was Gujarat's chief minister, saw more than 1,000 people killed.
The BBC documentary revealed that a British government report found Modi “directly responsible”. Although it was aired only in Britain, and featured interviews with members of India’s ruling BJP party who defended Modi, the Indian government’s response was ferocious.
It banned the documentary and called it “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage”. It ordered YouTube and Twitter in India to block it on their platforms - and they seem to have complied.
When students at the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University tried to screen the documentary, the administration turned off the electricity and internet access. At Delhi University, 24 students were detained by the police for trying to screen it.
Throughout all this, neither Sunak nor his ministers said anything.
In parliament, a Labour politician asked Sunak about the documentary. The prime minister made no attempt to defend the BBC. Instead, he replied that he did not “agree at all” with the BBC’s characterisation of Modi.
Just weeks later, the Indian government launched a brazen attack on the BBC. On 14 February, over a dozen officials from the Indian government’s income tax department arrived at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai to carry out a three-day tax raid, or a “survey” as the government calls it.
The Ministry of Finance then accused the BBC of tax evasion.
Incredibly, though, there has been no statement of concern or condemnation from Sunak at this blatant harassment, no public defence of the BBC from the UK government. Astonishingly, the British High Commission in India, which is reportedly monitoring the situation, has not issued a statement.
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Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders took the same view. “These raids have all the appearance of a reprisal against the BBC for releasing a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi three weeks ago,” it said in an official statement.
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Indian journalist Karan Thapar, speaking about the attack on the BBC, said that the "damage that has been done is to our country, to our country's reputation, to our country's standing as a democracy, and that means that the damage has been done to something that matters to all of us as Indian people”.