UK PM Rishi Sunak defends PM Modi over controversial BBC series
London, Jan 19: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has come out in defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a controversial BBC documentary claimed that the British government was aware about the Indian leader having an alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Sunak said he does not agree with the characterisation of Prime Minister Modi by Pakistani-origin Imran Hussain, an Opposition Labour Party MP, when he asked if the British premier agreed with claims in the BBC programme that some UK Foreign Office diplomats believed that "Modi was directly responsible".
During Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Hussain raised the claims made in the first part of India: The Modi Question' that UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) knew the "extent of Narendra Modi's involvement", then Gujarat chief minister, in the communal clashes that claimed hundreds of lives.
"The UK government's position on that is clear and long standing, and it has not changed," Sunak responded.
"Of course, we do not tolerate persecution anywhere, but I am not sure that I agree at all with the characterisation that the hon. gentleman has put forward," the British prime minister said.
The Indian government has, meanwhile, condemned the BBC Panorama programme, which has not been screened in India, as a propaganda piece with a questionable agenda behind it.
"We think that this is a propaganda piece, designed to push a particular discredited narrative. The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset is blatantly visible," MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters during a press briefing in New Delhi on Thursday when asked about the controversial series.
The first part of the two-part India: The Modi Question' programme, which aired on BBC Two on Tuesday, was categorised by the UK tax-payer funded broadcaster as "a look at the tensions between Indian PM Narendra Modi and India's Muslim minority, investigating claims about his role in 2002 riots that left over a thousand dead".
The second part of the series, scheduled to be aired next Tuesday, is pegged as a "look at the troubled relationship between Indian PM Narendra Modi's government and India's Muslim minority following his re-election in 2019".
"We strongly condemn the BBC's malicious documentary India: The Modi Question," said Insight UK, among several diaspora groups who have taken to social media to condemn the documentary.
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Minister Parameshwara says remarks on properties linked to drug peddlers 'misunderstood'
Tumakuru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Saturday said his recent remarks on the demolition of properties linked to those involved in narcotics trade were "misunderstood and misinterpreted".
His clarification follows remarks made two days ago on the government's uncompromising crackdown on the drug menace, including action against properties linked to foreign nationals allegedly involved in drug trafficking.
"It is unfortunate. It is taken in the wrong sense. I didn't mean that tomorrow itself I am going to send bulldozers and demolish the houses. That was not my intention. It was wrongly taken," he told reporters here.
Responding to Congress MLC K Abdul Jabbar's question in the legislative council on the growing drug menace in Bengaluru, Davangere and coastal districts, the minister on Thursday detailed the extensive enforcement measures initiated since the Congress government assumed office.
Pointing to the involvement of some foreign nationals, the minister had said, "Many foreign students from African countries have come to Karnataka. They are into the drug business. We catch them and register cases against them, but they want the case to be registered because once the case is registered, we cannot deport them."
"We have gone to the extent of demolishing the rented building where they stay," he had said.
