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In India, a documentary produced by the BBC’s English-language channel generated a very strong reaction. This documentary, released this week and viewable online, looks back at the anti-Muslim pogrom that occurred in 2002 in the Indian state of Gujarat, then led by Narendra Modi. New Delhi is talking propaganda and has just blocked all internet links showing the film.
With our correspondent in New Delhi, Sebastian Farcis
The Indian government has used extraordinary measures, provided for in the new technology law, to order the removal of around fifty links on Twitter and YouTube. That allows Indians to see the first episode of a BBC film entitled India: Modi’s question.
A documentary which argues, via documents unsealed by London, that Narendra Modi allegedly, in 2002, instructed local police to allow anti-Muslim pogroms to continue, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 people.
New Delhi describes the film as ” propaganda “, and justified this blocking by the fact that he would question the decision of the Supreme Court, which acquitted the Prime Minister, and that he could ” causing divisions among Indian society “.
British journalists, however, cited the Supreme Court decision and asked the government to comment on it, which it did not want. As a reminder, the United States denied Narendra Modi a visa for 10 years after this pogrom, in the name of “ serious violation of religious freedom “. Since being elected head of state in 2014, this episode has become a taboo in India.
► Also read India: in Gujarat, memories of the 2002 riots still influence the turnout
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