Kerala: Congress, CPI (M) take BBC documentary on Modi to the masses
Senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that Rahul Gandhi has already made the party's stand clear with regard to the BBC documentary.
Published: 26th January 2023 08:41 PM | Last Updated: 26th January 2023 08:48 PM | A+A A-
Kozhikode: People watch the BBC Documentary 'India: the Modi question', screened by Youth Congress workers at Kuttichira. (Photo | E Gokul, EPS)
CHENNAI: The Congress party in Kerala on Thursday screened the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Shanghumugham beach in Thiruvananthapuram.
The Centre had invoked the IT Rules, 2021 to direct YouTube and Twitter to take down links to the two-part documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’. The documentary examines the role of Modi in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The screening of the documentary at Shanghumugham beach comes at a time when senior Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor had questioned the timing of the documentary which, he said, comes 21 years after the Gujarat riots. Moreover, A K Antony's son Anil Antony quit the party on Wednesday after coming under fire for stating that screening the documentary would undermine the country's sovereignty.
Anil was convenor of the digital media cell of the Congress unit in Kerala and the national coordinator of the All India Congress Committee's (AICC) social media and digital communications cell.
However, Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, speaking to reporters in Jammu, had questioned the censorship, according to National Herald.
“Truth shines bright. It has a nasty habit of coming out. So no amount of banning, oppression and frightening people is going to stop the truth from coming out,” said Rahul.
Leader of opposition in Kerala Assembly, V D Satheesan had tweeted quoting George Washington that "If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that Anil Antony's is a closed chapter. He said that Rahul Gandhi has already made the party's stand clear with regard to the BBC documentary. The role of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the Gujarat riots is a well known fact. It's no more a secret, he said.
The Congress party claimed that there has been a tremendous response from the people to the screening of the documentary in different parts of the state before the decision was taken to screen it for the general public at the Shanghumugham beach.
The student wing of the ruling CPI (M), SFI (Students' Federation of India) has also screened the documentary in colleges in different parts of the state. The SFI had announced that the documentary will be screened in campuses across the country.
