Responding to Imran Hussain’s question on the BBC report, Rishi Sunak said, “The UK government’s position on this is clear and long-standing, and there is no change. Certainly harassment is visible wherever it appears, We do not tolerate that. But the way the honorable gentleman has been characterized, I do not believe and I do not agree with him at all.”

Britain’s national broadcaster BBC aired a two-part series targeting PM Narendra Modi’s tenure as Gujarat chief minister during the 2002 Gujarat riots. There was an outcry over this documentary and then it was removed from select platforms.

British citizens of Indian origin condemned this series. Prominent UK citizen Lord Rami Ranger said, “BBC has hurt more than a billion Indians.”

Condemning BBC’s biased reporting, Rami tweeted, “BBC you have deeply hurt over a billion Indians. This is an insult to the democratically elected @PMOIndia, Indian Police & Indian Judiciary. We condemn the riots & Condemn the loss of lives and also condemn your biased reporting.”

The Ministry of External Affairs also reacted to the BBC report and said that it is completely biased. The Central Government termed the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) documentary on the Gujarat riots as “a piece of propaganda”. The government said that it cannot ‘glorify’ such a film. On behalf of the government, it was said that BBC’s documentary on PM reflects propaganda, biased and colonial mentality and we do not know what is the agenda behind it?

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the recently aired BBC documentary on PM Narendra Modi is part of propaganda that questions his leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Let us tell you, there have been sharp reactions to the BBC’s two-part series “India: The Modi Question”.

A foreign ministry spokesperson said, “We think this is part of a disinformation campaign to push a particular narrative and have an agenda behind it.” When Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat state, there were fierce riots there. Significantly, the committee constituted on the instructions of the Supreme Court to investigate the Gujarat riots had given a clean chit to Narendra Modi. The committee did not find any evidence against Modi in the case.