India’s Supreme Court will contemplate petitions subsequent week in opposition to a authorities order blocking the sharing of clips of a BBC documentary that questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s management throughout riots in 2002 within the western state of Gujarat.
The authorities has dismissed the movie launched final week, titled India: The Modi Question, as a biased “propaganda piece” and blocked the sharing of any clips from it on social media.
The Supreme Court will take up the petitions subsequent week, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud stated in court docket on Monday.
A New Delhi-based lawyer, M L Sharma, opposed the federal government’s transfer in one of many petitions to the Supreme Court.
A separate petition by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, journalist N. Ram and opposition politician Mahua Moitra centered on the order to take down social media hyperlinks to the documentary.
In a Twitter touch upon the second petition, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju stated, “This is how they waste the precious time of the Honourable Supreme Court, where thousands of common citizens are waiting and seeking dates for justice.”
Modi, who goals for a 3rd time period in elections subsequent yr, was chief minister of Gujarat in February 2002, when a practice carrying pilgrims was set on fireplace.
The incident sparked one of many worst communal riots within the nation.
Modi has denied accusations that he didn’t do sufficient to cease the riots. He was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry overseen by the Supreme Court and a petition questioning his exoneration was dismissed final yr.
The BBC has stated the documentary was “rigorously researched” and concerned a variety of voices and opinions, together with responses from individuals in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
