Lopsided: 302 citizens slam film in open letter

New Delhi, January 21

Over 300 citizens, among them retired judges and bureaucrats, on Saturday slammed the BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots as “delusional”, saying it reeked of “colonial mindset” and was “mind-numbingly unsubstantiated”.

“This documentary is not a neutral critique. It is not about exercising creative freedom and it is not even about a divergent, anti-establishment point of view. It is in fact a visibly motivated chargesheet against our leader, a fellow Indian and a patriot. We cannot allow just about anyone to run amok with their deliberate bias, their vacuous reasoning hiding behind phrases like ‘it was widely reported’ or that ‘there were pretty credible reports’,” the 302 signatories said in an open letter which they presented for anyone to sign. The letter, signed by Sanjeev Tripathi, a former R&AW chief, Bhaswati Mukherjee, a former ambassador, and over 300 others, says the BBC series was based on “delusional and evidently lopsided reporting”.

“The series also presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India’s existence as an independent, democratic nation, a nation which functions according to the will of the people of India,” it says. The signatories termed the entire documentary colonial in approach.

Recalling the 452-page Supreme Court judgment that upheld the closure report of the SIT formed to probe the riots, the letter attributes the documentary’s bias in the fact that it completely ignores the SC verdict. The letter, signatories said, was the start of a signature campaign on the issue.