NEW DELHI (AFP) – India’s government said it has blocked videos and tweets sharing links to a BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role during deadly 2002 sectarian riots, calling it “hostile propaganda”.
The British broadcaster’s programme alleges that the Hindu nationalist Modi, premier of Gujarat state at the time, ordered police to turn a blind eye to the violence there that left at least 1,000 people dead.
Government adviser Kanchan Gupta tweeted on Saturday that the Indian government used emergency powers under IT rules to block the documentary and its clips from being shared on social media.
“Videos sharing @BBCWorld hostile propaganda, disguised as ‘documentary’, on @YouTube and tweets sharing links to the BBC documentary have been blocked under India’s sovereign laws and rules,” he said.
Orders were also issued to Twitter to block over 50 tweets with links to YouTube videos. Both YouTube and Twitter have complied with the instructions, Gupta said.
