Since the birth of India as a democratic state the western notion of Democracy and knowledge and even the western Political pundits have apprehensions about the success of India’s democratic experiment. From Prime Minister of United Kingdom to the President of United States of America, all predicted the demise of India as a nation-state.
This western neo-imperialistic mindset is best reflected in the works of Selig S. Harrison ‘India: the most dangerous decades’. In this work, he claimed that India would be disintegrated into pieces during the 1960’s. India not only survived but came out much stronger. Western philosophers are always shy to call India as the largest democratic country. The image of snake charmers is still used by the western media in general and BBC in particular to represent the Indian state.
Many international reports architectured by the western powers like democracy index, human rights index, religious freedom index, global hunger index and many others, continuously tries to portray a bleak image of India under the leadership of Modi. The government of India time and again proved this western propagandist indexes factually and methodologically wrong and baseless rather these reports are part of a larger framework to demean India’s democratically elected leadership.
Present BBC documentary is no exception of it but a visual hatred propaganda which could be easily spread to hit the minds of common Indians against the current dispensation. The same prejudices and stereotypes of India’s capacity and growing heft in international scenario is reflected in BBC’S documentary on Modi. It is a direct attack and shrewd intervention in the domestic political and social system of India which should not be tolerated at any cost as it is a challenge to the sovereignty and integrity of India as a nation state.
A classic example of mediated neo- imperialism in globalized era was the restriction imposed on the then chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi even when allegations against him had not been proved in any court of law. After the riots in Gujarat, a few European embassies in Delhi spearheaded the ‘boycott Modi’ movement. For many years, even the ambassadors of European Union nations eschewed Modi and Gujarat. Narendra Modi is always being portrayed as an authoritarian leader in the democratic country.
When Modi, however, became a recognized national figure, many of them immediately began making quiet inquiries about his potential roles. In the meantime, Gujarat began to draw tourists from various nations, including the European Union, owing to the Vibrant Gujarat events and the growth led developmental model. The alleged ban began to fall apart when the Indian judiciary determined in 2012 that Modi played no part in the riots at all following thorough investigation. Soon, a number of EU ambassadors began re-engaging with him.
Just to demean Modi and gain political leverage, opposition has time and again elucidated the BBC documentary but it feels like they are forgetting the past when the same BBC had published posters demeaning Gandhi and Nehru and criticized Indira Gandhi for Bangladesh liberation and subsequent peace pact with Russia. Opposition should understand that this is not merely an attack on Modi but an attempt to detriment the integrity and sovereignty of India.
The release timing of BBC documentary an year before the general election is a blatant way to interfere in the democratic domestic domain of India. It is a sinister design to smudge the reputation of the Indian Prime Minister at a time when India is preparing to host the G-20 Summit and Modi himself is emerging as a key player on the world stage. This type of false narrative in post truth globalized era needs to be collectively countered.
BBC’S documentary is a well planned attack to demean India’s image and India’s leadership. Parallelly it is also an attack on world’s most powerful judicial system which has given clean-chit to the then Gujarat Chief Minister after an extensive and in-depth judicial enquiry. This is nothing but a continued saga and demeaning the growing power of India under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The media fraternity in specific and all of citizenry in India is now well aware and equipped to dismantle such false propaganda perpetrated by the western powers with the vested interests to destabilize the political stability in India under the vibrant and inclusive of leadership of Narendra Modi.
