On Monday, the Delhi High Court summoned the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in response to a defamation lawsuit lodged by an NGO that claimed that the BBC’s documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question’ defamed India, its judiciary, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In addition to serving notice on the BBC (UK), Justice Sachin Datta also requested a response from the BBC (India) about the lawsuit brought by the Gujarat-based NGO ‘Justice for Trial’. According to the complaint, BBC (India) is the local operating office, and BBC (UK) has published the two-part documentary “India: The Modi Question.”
Senior attorney Harish Salve, who is representing the NGO, stated that the BBC is being sued for defamation because of a program that ‘defamed’ India and its whole system, including the court. He argued that there are hints made against the prime minister in the documentary as well.
It is worth noting that recently, the Delhi court issued summons to BBC, Wikimedia Foundation, and Internet Archive after a defamation suit was filed by Jharkhand BJP leader Binay Kumar Singh over the BBC’s controversial documentary on PM Modi. Singh, who is also associated with RSS and VHP, had filed a defamation suit against the BBC, Wikimedia Foundation, and Internet Archive over the documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ aired by BBC in January this year.
Binay Kumar Singh, who is also an author, researcher, and TV panelist, said in the suit that he had to suffer defamation due to the defamation caused to the organisations, the RSS, VHP, and BJP, with which he is associated, due to the documentary.
“The allegations made against the RSS and VHP are motivated by a malicious intent to defame the organisations and its millions of members/ volunteers. Such unfounded allegations are not only baseless but also have the potential to damage the reputation and image of the RSS, VHP, and its millions of members/ volunteers, who have committed themselves to upholding the cultural, social, and national values of India,” the suit read.
The plaintiff stated that the links to the banned BBC documentary were illegally uploaded on the Internet Archive platform, and the links to it were widely disseminated by Wikipedia. He said that the RSS and other organisations associated with it are prestigious and the documentary has damaged the reputation of these organisations by publishing unverified and fake claims.
Later, it was reported that the Internet Archive had taken down the illegal links. However, BBC argued that it is a foreign entity and that the Delhi court did not have the jurisdiction to deal with the defamation case filed against it.
The controversial documentary was banned by the government on January 24 this year. However, the jurisdiction of this ban is limited in India, and the two-part documentary is legally available outside India.
