Supreme Court dismisses petition seeking ban on BBC over Narendra Modi documentary

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea for a complete ban on the BBC and initiate an NIA probe against its anti-India reporting in light of its recent documentary titled India: The Modi Question on 2002 Gujarat riots, saying it is “absolutely misconceived”. Supreme Court dismisses petition seeking ban on BBC over Narendra Modi documentary.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M M Sundresh declined to entertain the petition filed by Vishnu Gupta, the national president of Hindu Sena, and Muzaffarpur resident Beerendra Kumar Singh, saying it could not impose censorship.

The court rejected a request made by senior advocate Pinky Anand to tag the instant matter with a pending joint petition by journalist N Ram, advocate Prashant Bhushan and TMC MP Mahua Moitra and another one by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma.

Acting on the pleas by the three petitioners as well as of Sharma’s, the bench had on February 3 asked the Union Government to produce original records related to its decision to block the BBC documentary on Modi.

During the arguments on Friday, Anand asked the court to look into the background in which India has become powerful with its rise as economic power. She said a man of Indian origin has become Prime Minister of the UK. The bench, however, asked her as to how she could argue all these in support of her plea for ban on the BBC.

Petitioner Gupta, in his plea, contended the BBC has been mouthpiece of those who targeted India to dent its image and to break Indian society by indulging in cold war broadcasting.

The plea settled by advocate Barun Kumar Sinha and filed through advocate Abhishek, claimed the documentary by BBC relating to Gujarat violence 2002 implicating Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not only reflective of anti-Modi propaganda broadcast to tarnish his image alone but this is anti-Hinduism propaganda by the BBC to destroy the social fabric of the country.

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