Narendra Modi, India and democracy: the debate rages on social networks
The BBC offices in New Delhi and Bombay were raided on February 15, 2023 for three days by the Indian tax authorities, less than a month after the British channel broadcast a documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
AP - Altaf Qadri
Text by: Côme Bastin Follow
3 mins
India is shaken and divided following the broadcast of the critical BBC documentary against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The channel is under fire from government critics who suddenly accuse it of tax evasion.
The opposition denounces anti-democratic censorship.
And the controversy is also taking place on social networks.
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From our correspondent in Bangalore,
The battle is played, from the start, on the digital field with the decision, at the end of January 2023, to ban the documentary.
This accuses the Prime Minister of having let the massacres of Muslims take place while he was in charge of Gujarat in 2002. The government orders the blocking of internet addresses where you can watch the film, as well as the deletion of several messages on social networks allowing it to be viewed.
But many Internet users will post other links to circumvent these prohibitions.
Mahasabha screened the BBC documentary "India: The Modi Question" for students, youth and activists in Ranchi today.
We appeal to everyone to stand against the growing authoritarianism, religious majoritarianism and attacks on democratic rights in the country.
pic.twitter.com/GFZ3wB0NUN
— Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (@JharkhandJanad1) February 19, 2023
It is also by transmitting the digital file and by organizing themselves through social networks that several student movements will organize physical screenings of the documentary across India, like this Sunday, February 19, in Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand.
► To read also:
Censorship of a BBC documentary on Modi in India: anti-democratic intimidation?
The BBC raided
The debate has intensified since the
raid by tax authorities last week
on the premises of the BBC in India, with supporters of Narendra Modi on one side.
They see the documentary as the latest proof of a Western anti-Indian plot.
They make the amalgam with the critical report of the American firm Hindenburg against the empire of the businessman Adani, close to the power or the recent remarks of George Soros.
Some are even calling for the BBC to be banned from India altogether.
The West has indeed banned
Russia Today,
argues one of them.
For others, the attacks on the BBC are on the contrary proof of the anti-democratic nature of the ruling BJP party.
What a surprise!!
😁
A few weeks after they aired the documentary on Modi, BBC India now raided by IT
Agencies like IT, CBI and ED have become laughing stock for turning into BJP's biggest puppets
What next?
ED raids on Hindenberg or a hostile takeover attempt?
pic.twitter.com/yaZ4ySw88f
— KTR (@KTRBRS) February 14, 2023
“
Agencies like the Fisc or the Federal Bureau of Investigation have become the puppets of the BJP
”, judges one of them.
And then many point to the big gap between India being touted as the mother of democracies since chairing the G20 and recent events and India's abysmal press freedom rankings.
Narendra Modi, India and democracy
Internet users who seem extremely polarized, like the Indian political class.
The debate overlaps dangerously with that on the West.
For the supporters of the power in place, any criticism against Narendra Modi is a criticism against India and therefore foreign interference.
For others, it is this logic of confusion between India and its leader that carries the danger of destroying Indian democracy.
Good thing that the anti-India cabal is getting exposed so nicely - BBC, Hindenburg, Soros, Congress, Samajwadi Party, few NGOs, media outlets & few rabid individuals(Arundhati Roy, Mahua Moitra, Rana Ayyub, Audrey Trushke, c.Jaffrelot , Thomas B Hansen) this is great !!
— Asha Jadeja Motwani 🇮🇳🇺🇸 (@ashajadeja325) February 18, 2023
Deeply antagonistic visions, deepened by the approach of the 2024 elections during which India will choose its next Prime Minister.
►
Also to listen
: India, "
The country is more and more divided
", according to Jean-Luc Racine, international guest
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