BBC Documentary on PM Modi: Secular Forces to Gain Little from Debating Gujarat Riots, says Shashi Tharoor

The controversy surrounding the BBC documentary is not going to die down soon. While the Congress party is criticising the Modi government for banning the documentary, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has dissented from his party's stand on the issue. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that while the wounds of the 2002 Gujarat riots may not be healed, people in the secular camp gain a little from debating the issue. Tharoor was responding to a Twitter user who claimed that Tharoor asked Indians to move on from the riots.

The Twitter user wrote, "Shashi Tharoor demanded an apology from the British government for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Yesterday, he asked Indians to move on from the 2002 Gujarat massacre!" 

To this Tharoor replied, "I did not do that. I've repeatedly made it clear that i believe the wounds of Gujarat have not fully healed, but that given that the Supreme Court has issued a final ruling, we gain little from debating this issue when so many urgent contemporary matters need to be addressed."

I did not do that. I've repeatedly made it clear that i believe the wounds of Gujarat have not fully healed, but that given that the Supreme Court has issued a final ruling, we gain little from debating this issue when so many urgent contemporary matters need to be addressed. https://t.co/kvfcb6u27p

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) January 27, 2023

He further added, "I acknowledge that others may disagree with my view, but distorting my four-decade record on communal issues &two decades of standing up for the Gujarat riot victims is cynical in the extreme. People in the "secular camp" gain little from being viciously malicious to their own."

Meanwhile, many anti-BJP student organisations have screened the film in their university campuses across India despite prohibitory measures by the administration.  Delhi Police on Friday detained around 20 people from outside the Faculty of Arts at the University of Delhi in the wake of a call by NSUI-KSU for the screening of the BBC documentary series on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Provisions under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) are imposed outside the Faculty of Arts.