US State Department avoids commenting on India’s ban of documentary critical of Modi
- The web series highlights a British inquiry that found Modi ‘directly responsible’ for a climate encouraging riots in 2002 in Gujarat that killed 1,000, mostly Muslims
- ‘I am not aware of the documentary that you point to,’ department spokesman Ned Price tells a reporter asking about New Delhi’s banning of the series
The US struggled to defend a major partner in the Indo-Pacific this week after the Indian government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi banned a BBC documentary critical of Modi’s policies toward Muslims.
“There are a number of elements that undergird the global strategic partnership that we have with our Indian partners,” State Department spokesman Ned Price stressed in response to a question about the ban.
Reopening the most controversial chapter of Modi’s decades-long political career as a Hindu nationalist, the web series highlights previously unpublished findings of an investigation by Britain’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office into the 2002 riots in the Indian state of Gujarat.
The investigation concluded that Modi, then the chief minister of Gujarat, was “directly responsible” for the “climate of impunity” that encouraged the violence which left more than 1,000 people dead, mostly Muslims.
A special investigative team appointed by India’s Supreme Court in 2012 said there was no evidence against Modi.
On Monday, a Pakistani journalist asked Price why in the last eight years – since Modi has been prime minister – no one at the State Department had condemned him for the “rapes and murders” that played out “right under the nose of Modi”.