The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has reacted sharply to a BBC documentary series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Gujarat communal violence of 2002, released this week, calling it a “propaganda piece with bias” that reflected a “continuing colonial mindset”.

“The documentary is a reflection on the agency that has made it - it’s a propaganda piece, there is bias and a continuing colonial mindset. Can’t dignify such a film,” said MEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi at a media briefing on Thursday.

The BBC documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question’, looks at the large-scale communal violence that erupted in Gujarat in the months of February and March, in 2002 that left many dead.

The documentary alleges that a team sent by the British government to inquire into the 2002 Gujarat riots said Narendra Modi, who was then the State’s Chief Minister, was “directly responsible for a climate of impunity” that led to the violence.

‘Alarming results’

Bagchi said that words like inquiry and investigation were reflection of a `colonial mindset’. “What inquiry. They (the team of officials) were diplomats here. Were they ruling the country?...I don’t agree with that characterisation and obviously there is an agenda behind it,” he said.

On former UK Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw’s comments to the BBC on him being personally involved in the Gujarat riot  investigations as the data and results provided were alarming, Bagchi said Straw was referring to a 20 year old report and it was difficult to have access to that.

“Just because Jack Straw says it, how does it lend it so much legitimacy”? he asked.

The first part of the two-part documentary, which was released on Tuesday, has been subsequently removed from YouTube.

Plea dismissed

Last year, the Supreme Court dismissed a plea of Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain MP Ehsan Jafri, which challenged the Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) clean chit to 64 people, including then Chief Minister Narendra Modi, in the 2002 Gujarat riots case.