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Influencing 2024 Polls has Started with BBC Show

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Voters must remain vigilant as playing on the fault lines will only get worse

New Delhi, Jan 25: The game plan to influence the next general election of India has started in full earnest. The BBC documentary is just the beginning. One of the world's largest media houses picks up on communal riots that happened two decades ago in one state of India, graphically highlights selective incidents, quotes from a report by British diplomats, the same report that had elicited stern warning from the then Foreign Secretary in New Delhi.

So why is the BBC picking on a subject to telecast a documentary which has no news 'take-off' point so to say right now? Why is it so keen to discuss the spate of violence two decades ago? Why re-open old wounds?

Influencing 2024 Polls has Started with BBC Show

Has the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat not been written and discussed enough? And if the purpose of the BBC is to do a 'follow-up' on riot victims then there are towns, cities and rural stretches from Assam to West Bengal to Jharkhand to Delhi where Hindu, Sikh riot victims are also waiting to be heard.

UK's House of Lords member writes to BBC not to air 2nd part of series on PM ModiUK's House of Lords member writes to BBC not to air 2nd part of series on PM Modi

For a keen political observer the reasons are obvious. Narendra Modi, whose first victory in 2014 was seen as black swan event, has thrown all calculations of political pundits in the dustbin. He not only won a successive second victory but came back with a bigger tally. A year before his third general election, he continues to be the unchallenged leader in India and enjoys the highest ratings worldwide. Even the most vocal Modi-baiters grudgingly admit that the opposition parties are still fighting for the second, third and fourth positions. Modi remains the undisputed number one.

While the opposition may voice concern over unemployment, price rise, foreign policy etc, they know too well in their minds that none of these issues will help defeat Modi. The only way out is the dangerous game of playing upon social and communal fault lines so that sentiments can flare up and the discourse can then be exploited in elections.

Why else would the opposition pounce upon the BBC documentary in such a manner when the highest court in the country has exonerated Narendra Modi following investigations by a Special Investigation Team that worked under the direct supervision of the Supreme Court? It is one thing for the BBC, a foreign media house, to disregard the judgment, but how can Indian parties do the same? Do they not go to the same apex court to raise their concerns? Should they be announcing special screenings of the documentary which blatantly disregards SC orders?

In fact, the post Godhra riots in Gujarat are a classic case in India's judicial history when every possible judicial tool was utilised again and again and again and finally the apex court had to point that all options had now been exhausted. The bench categorically said they would not entertain any more petitions on the subject.

How the BBC documentary on PM Modi is being used as propaganda materialHow the BBC documentary on PM Modi is being used as propaganda material

Yet BBC has gone ahead with the show and Indian politicians are excited to hold special screenings for the same. The object is not justice but to demonise Narendra Modi. Interestingly, alert Muslims seem to be able to see through the game much better than our politicians and intelligentsia. That is why they have voiced their appeal to not re-open the wounds and understand the sentiment of moving on. But 'moving on' is not what our political parties appear interested in. In fact, the caste census and extremely provocative comments on Ramcharitmanas indicate that there will be many more efforts to play up the fault lines, both from inside India and abroad.

Political parties may be desperate enough to forget the results of similar shenanigans in 2014 and 2019 but the Indian voter must remain vigilant in the face of such provocations.

(Smita Mishra writes on politics and current affairs)

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of OneIndia and OneIndia does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.

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