India uses emergency powers to block BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi from being seen in the country
India says it has used emergency powers to block a BBC documentary about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi from being shared online.
The two-part programme – India: The Modi Question – questions Mr Modi’s leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The first episode was broadcast in the UK on Tuesday, and while it did not air in India, content was shared online, according to government adviser Kanchan Gupta.
Indian Hindus riot in Ahmedabad, the main city in the western Indian state of Gujarat, on 1 March 2002
He said the government had issued orders to both YouTube and Twitter to block content, using legislation under the country’s information and technology rules. He said both social media companies had complied.
Last week, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry termed the BBC documentary a “propaganda piece” meant to push a “discredited narrative”.
Rishi Sunak was asked about the documentary at Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) on Wednesday.
Imran Hussain, Labour MP for Bradford East, asked the PM about claims in the film that the Foreign Office “knew the extent of Mr Modi’s involvement in the Gujarat massacre,” and asked whether Mr Sunak believed Mr Modi was “directly responsible” for the violence that ensued.
Mr Sunak answered: “The UK government’s position on that is clear and long standing, and it has not changed. Of course, we do not tolerate persecution anywhere, but I am not sure that I agree at all with the characterisation that the honourable gentleman has put forward.”
India is the largest democracy in the world. The country has two main religious groups, with Hindus making up around 80% of the population and Muslims around 14% of the population, according to a 2011 census.
Rishi Sunak and Narendra Modi in November 2022
Mr Modi has been India’s prime minister since 2014, and is currently serving his second term after his re-election in 2019.
However, his decade-long premiership has been dogged by persistent allegations about the attitude of his government towards India’s Muslim population.
He was the chief minister of the western state of Gujarat when it was gripped by riots that left more than 1,000 people dead, according to official numbers, most of them Muslims.
The violence erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing 59.
Human rights activists estimate at least double that number died in the rioting.
Mr Modi denied accusations that he failed to stop the rioting.
A special investigation team appointed by the Supreme Court to investigate the role of Mr Modi and others in the violence said in a 541-page report in 2012 that it could find no evidence to prosecute the-then chief minister.
He was later named the head of his party, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which he led to power.
Elections are set to take place in India next year.
The second part of the documentary is due to be broadcast on Tuesday 24 January.
World
Director of one of last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza detained in Israeli military raid
The director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza was arrested in a raid the Israeli military said was targeting a Hamas command centre.
The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry said Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was held by Israeli forces on Friday along with dozens of other staff and taken to an interrogation centre.
Sky News has spoken to patients who say they were forced outside and told to strip in winter weather after troops stormed the hospital.
Israel‘s military said it “conducted and completed a targeted operation” as the hospital was being used as a command centre for Hamas military operations.
Dr Hussam Abu Safiya. File pic
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) statement said more than 240 terrorists were detained, some of whom tried to pose as patients or flee using ambulances.
Among those taken for questioning are the hospital’s director, who it said was suspected of being a “Hamas terrorist operative”.
Around 15 people involved in last year’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 250 others abducted, were also detained, the IDF said.
The Israeli military said hundreds of patients and staff were evacuated to another hospital before and during the operation, and it had provided fuel and medical supplies to both hospitals.
Militants fired on its forces and they were “eliminated”, while weapons, including grenades, guns, munitions, and military equipment, were also seized in the raid, it said.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 45,400 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, and wounded more than 108,000 others, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The hospital has been hit multiple times over the past three months by Israeli troops waging an offensive in largely isolated northern Gaza against Hamas fighters it says have regrouped.
The health ministry said a strike on the hospital earlier this week killed five medical personnel.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was “appalled” by Friday’s raid, which it said put northern Gaza’s last major health facility “out of service”.
“The systematic dismantling of the health system and a siege for over 80 days… puts the lives of the 75,000 Palestinians remaining in the area at risk,” a statement said.
The Israeli military said in a statement: “The IDF will continue to act in accordance with international law regarding medical facilities, including those where Hamas has chosen to embed its military infrastructure and conduct terrorist activities in blatant violation of international law.”
Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has been cremated after a state funeral as politicians and the public mourned his death.
Widely regarded as the architect of the country’s economic reform programme, he died on Thursday aged 92.
His body was taken on Saturday morning to the headquarters of his Congress party in New Delhi, where party leaders and activists paid tribute to him and chanted: “Manmohan Singh lives forever.”
Former Indian PM Manmohan Singh pictured in 2014. File pic: AP
Abhishek Bishnoi, a party leader, said Mr Singh’s death was big loss for the country.
“He used to speak little, but his talent and his actions spoke louder than his words,” he said.
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Later, Mr Singh’s body was transported to a crematorium ground for his last rites as soldiers beat drums.
Government officials, politicians and family members paid their last respects to Mr Singh, whose casket was adorned with flowers and wrapped in the Indian flag.
Indian President Draupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called Mr Singh one of the country’s “most distinguished leaders”, attended the funeral ceremony.
Gursharan Kaur (right), wife of Mr Singh, attends his funeral. Pic: AP
Mr Singh’s body was then transferred to a pyre as religious hymns played and he was cremated.
Authorities have declared a seven-day mourning period and cancelled all cultural and entertainment events during that time.
Mr Singh was prime minister for 10 years and leader of the Congress party in parliament’s upper house.
He was chosen to be prime minister in 2004 by Sonia Gandhi, the widow of assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Mr Singh was re-elected in 2009, but his second term was clouded by financial scandals.
This led to the Congress party’s crushing defeat in the 2014 national elections by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
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