Why not make a series on British atrocities?: Kerala Gov questions the motive BBC Documentary on Gujarat riots
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan on Saturday questioned why the makers of the documentary on Gujarat riots weren’t making a series on British atrocities, media reports said.
He asserted that the documentary makers were "feeling disappointed" as India was doing well.
"India is doing so well across the world so these people are feeling disappointed. Why didn't they make a documentary on British atrocities? I feel sorry for some of our own people because they trust a documentary over the verdicts by the judiciary," Arif Mohammad Khan was quoted as saying by ANI.
He also said some people believed a foreign documentary over the verdicts of the Indian judiciary.
The Kerala governor alleged that the documentary was timed when India assumed the G20 presidency.
“This is the time when India has assumed the G20 presidency. Why this particular time has been chosen to bring out this documentary? Particularly coming from a source who predicted at the time of our freedom that India is not capable of preserving its freedom, its democracy, and India will be broken into pieces,” the Kerala Governor had said while addressing the reporters in Thiruvananthapuram.
Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs trashed the two-part BBC documentary on Gujarat riots as a "propaganda piece" that lacked objectivity and reflected a "colonial mindset".
The documentary claimed that it investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of that state.
On the investigation claims and the comments by former UK foreign secretary Jack Straw in the BBC documentary where he is referring to a secret report on the Gujarat riots, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said: "He must be referring to some internal report..just because Jack Straw says, his words don't add legitimacy...I heard words like 'enquiry', 'investigation'. There is a reason we use words like 'colonial mindset'. We don't use such words loosely. What enquiry? They were diplomats here! Investigation? Are they ruling the country? We don't agree with that characterisation. Obviously there is an agenda behind it."