The BBC, the British Broadcasting Corporation, has come under fire for a new two-part series it is launching on Tuesday called “India: The Modi Question” on BBC Two, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

According to ‘The Times of India’, the series description states: “A look at the tensions between Indian PM Narendra Modi and India’s Muslim minority, investigating claims about his role in 2002 riots that left over a thousand dead.”

Indian-origin users on Twitter reacted angrily to the series, with one suggesting the BBC should run a series on the Bengal Famine called “UK: The Churchill Question”, and another saying the BBC should focus on UK problems given Britain has fallen behind India on almost parameters. “One thing Indians hate more than all their problems is being told by outsiders, especially past colonisers,” another wrote.

The series will examine how “Narendra Modi’s premiership has been dogged by persistent allegations about the attitude of his government towards India’s Muslim population” and “a series of controversial policies” implemented by Modi following his 2019 re-election, including “the removal of Kashmir’s special status guaranteed under Article 370” and “a citizenship law that many said treated Muslims unfairly”, which “has been accompanied by reports of violent attacks on Muslims by Hindus,” the BBC states.

British Indian Adit Kothari, the founding member of the Indic Society, who recently organised a protest outside the BBC in London over its “anti-India bias”, said: “Part of the purpose of the series seems to be to influence pockets of the urban population in India in relation to the upcoming 2024 elections. Although the consumption of the BBC is very limited in India, it will nonetheless provide ammunition to the media and opposition to use BBC’s previous credibility to spin a narrative. The other part seems to be to portray Modi as intolerant who treats Muslims poorly. This is for BBC’s domestic consumption in the UK as the British are sealing a trade deal with India.”

He added: “Domestically, this should be viewed as a direct assault on the Tory party and on Rishi Sunak by the Left-leaning liberal intelligentsia in the UK. The BBC has been anti-India for decades but in recent years it has shifted to being anti-Modi and anti-Hindu because the Indian PM doesn’t fit into their definition of the eloquent English speaker who studied abroad, like his previous predecessors, and is different from the colonial hangover that lasted in Indian polity for decades.”