GUWAHATI: After Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the Assam assembly on Tuesday passed a private member's resolution seeking action against BBC for "malicious and dangerous" documentary, "India: The Modi Question", leading to a walkout by the opposition, which wanted the documentary on the Gujarat riots to be screened in the assembly before adopting any resolution.
The resolution was moved by BJP MLA Bhubon Pegu through a private members' resolution.
He alleged that BBC has questioned India's free press, judiciary and the legitimacy of its democratically elected government in the two-part documentary film.
Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, while supporting the resolution, said, "We see this BBC's documentary as an international conspiracy against India. We are moving this resolution against BBC for defaming India, people of India and Indian judiciary and because BBC has unleashed an international conspiracy when India was assuming the G20 presidency."
He added, "I appeal to House that the way we stood against the British colonialism, today we need to stand up against a foreign broadcasting corporation for speaking on India's internal matters."
Sarma said a few days ago, a bench of Supreme Court in a 450-page verdict on the Gujarat riots gave clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also described the entire episode as a political conspiracy.
The bench said all the allegations against Modi and the then Gujarat government were baseless and false.
"Today we need to understand the timing of the publication of the documentary - when India was assuming G20 presidency and five important meetings are hosted by Assam. BBC could have published it before the SC verdict but instead it did after the Supreme Court closed the case," he said.
"We want to send a message to BBC that you are not above Indian judiciary," he added
Opposing the resolution, Leader of the Opposition, Debabrata Saikia, said it will affect the free press and freedom of expression, which is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Indian Constitution. On this, Sarma said fundamental rights are for the Indian citizens, but not for BBC.
CPM's Manoranjan Talukdar and several other opposition legislators requested speaker Biswajit Daimary to screen the documentary to understand its content and then have a discussion on the resolution.
As soon as the House passed the resolution by voice vote, the entire opposition staged a walkout.
Prabin Kalita is a journalist at The Times of India and is curren...
Read MorePrabin Kalita is a journalist at The Times of India and is currently the Chief of Bureau (northeast). He has been reporting in mainstream Indian national media since 2001. He has been a field journalist reporting gamut of issues from India’s northeastern region and major developments in neighbouring countries like Myanmar, China, Bhutan and Bangladesh concerning India and northeastern region. He has been covering insurgency—internal and cross-border, politics, natural calamities, environment etc. He is a post-graduate in Geological Sciences from Gauhati University.
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