Indian diaspora protests outside BBC headquarter in London against its documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. PTI.
New Delhi: India’s Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday said no foreign platform has “right” to broadcast in any country and “it is solely on the government and the laid down norms/guidelines.”
He was reacting to a tweet by former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, who said, “If government can’t have discretion to ban a foreign film maligning PM (Modi) without SC intervening in public interest where are we headed.”
He further highlighted that European democracies have banned all Russian channels. “Their courts don’t seem to be hearing such petitions claiming right to access foreign propaganda,” Sibal said.
Reading to Chandrasekhar’s tweet, former CEO of Prasar Bharati said: “It is worse – the claim is for the “right to foreign propaganda through content piracy”.
The reaction comes couple of days after the Supreme Court of India Friday issued notice to Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre seeking its response for blocking a two-episode BBC documentary titled – ‘India: The Modi Question’.
The apex court also directed the government to place before it the original records of the decision-making process for its perusal.
The top court, however, turned down a plea for an interim order to direct the Central government to make public its blocking order and said that it would itself be examining the document on the next hearing.
The matter is listed for the next hearing in April.
On 21 January, the Indian government issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the controversial BBC documentary on PM Modi.
The Modi government dismissed the film titled as “propaganda” and a reflection of “bias and a colonial mindset”.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India invoked emergency government powers under the IT Rules, 2021, to flag the versions of BBC documentary on PM Modi and about 50 tweets.
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.