On Friday, the illegal links to the banned documentary on PM Modi named ‘India: The Modi Question’ aired by BBC in January this year were removed by Internet Archive after a defamation suit was filed by Jharkhand BJP leader Binay Kumar Singh. Wikipedia still carries the defunct link connecting to Internet Archive and the BBC link also exists.
At the time of writing this report, Wikipedia still carried the defunct link of Internet Archive with the BBC documentary on PM Modi. Thought it was marked “dead link”.
The BBC links by Wikipedia still works and the documentary is still available on it which is to say that it is not a dead link.
When one clicks on the link of Internet Archive, one is taking to the website which says that the content has been removed.
Singh, who is also associated with RSS and VHP, filed a defamation suit against the BBC, Wikimedia Foundation and Internet Archive over the documentary this week. He had said in the plea that though the documentary is banned by the Indian government, links to the same were illegally being made available by BBC through Wikipedia and Internet Archive.
As reported earlier, Additional District Judge Ruchika Singla of Rohini Courts has issued the summons to the defendants and listed the case for hearing on May 11. The court has given 30 days to the defendants to file written replies to the suit. The suit states that the allegations made in the documentary against the RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad are motivated by malicious intent to defame the organizations and their members or volunteers.
The plaintiff, Binay Kumar Singh tweeted and said that the illegal links to the outlawed documentary had been removed. “This is a big moral victory. Wikipedia has removed the link to Internet Archive related to the banned documentary (both parts) titled, India: The Modi question,” he said. “No one is allowed to disrespect the law of the land in India. BBC’s bias against India is no secret,” he tweeted further.
A big moral victory ✌️
— Binay Kumar Singh (@BinayBharat) May 4, 2023
No one is allowed to disrespect the law of the land in India. BBC’s bias against India is no secret.
Wikipedia had removed the link of Internet Archive related to the banned documentary titled, “India: The Modi question”. @ThisIsTheMukesh pic.twitter.com/h9STPXYTxV
Binay Kumar Singh, who is also an author, researcher and TV panellist, 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, over the documentary which has been already banned by the Central government. The valuation of the suit which has been filed through Advocate Mukesh Sharma is Rs 10 lakh.
“The allegations made against the RSS and VHP are motivated by a malicious intent to defame the organizations 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 uphold the cultural, social and national values of India,” the suit said.
According to the suit, Singh on April 13 this year was called by one of his friends who criticized him and expressed dismay over his association with the RSS. Singh said that his friend called him after watching the controversial documentary which has directly held RSS and VHP responsible for the widespread and systematic rape of Muslim women, purging of Muslims from Hindu areas and mass murder of thousands of Muslims in Gujarat.
Singh then researched to discover that the two parts of the already-banned documentary were still available on Wikipedia and the Internet Archive. However, the links have now been removed and declared as ‘dead links’ by the Wikipedia and the Internet Archive.
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. The case is slated to be heard next on May 11, 2023.
