Washington: The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), a Washington DC-based nonprofit organization in a letter to Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday demanded that he reverse Twitter’s censorship of the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his role during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The council has also demanded that Musk refuse to comply with future censorship requests from the Indian government.
Executive director of the council, Rasheed Ahmed on behalf of Indian-Americans, wrote to the Twitter chief expressing disappointment at Twitter’s anti-free speech decision to block BBC’s documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question’. the documentary publicizes well-documented evidence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s complicity in the massacre of over 2,000 Muslims in 2002 while serving as chief minister of Gujarat.
“As Modi and the Indian government continue to pursue anti-Muslim policies, it is of grave concern that Twitter has furthered the Indian Government’s domestic censorship campaign which this week included detaining students attempting to screen the film and extending it to international audiences,” read the letter.
Taking a dig at Musk, the director in his letter said, “It is shocking that while you call yourself a ‘free speech absolutist,’ you have taken this decision that exposes your double standards where Muslim lives don’t matter to you and your corporation.”
Recollecting the statements by Elon Musk when he took over Twitter, Rasheed Ahmed said, “You have said that your aspiration is for Twitter to be an ‘inclusive arena of free speech.’ You have described free-speech debates as a battle for the future of civilization.”
The director further demanded an explanation from the Twitter chief saying, “You must come clean and explain to the world why Twitter has employed craven double standards, where Neo-Nazis have the right to speak but not the BBC.”
BBC documentary briefing in the letter
“The BBC documentary quotes politicians and senior police officers who met with Modi during the days of the violence in 2002, and who all allege that he ordered the police to stand down while Hindu-Supremacist groups killed and raped Muslim victims for three days, destroying 20,000 properties, and forcing 200,000 to flee their homes,” Rasheed briefed in his letter.
The documentary quotes former Senior officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who testified in India’s Supreme Court that Modi ordered the police to let Hindus carry out retaliatory violence against Muslims, instructing them to stand down and let Hindus vent their anger.
“Modi’s vindictive regime has since arrested and jailed Bhatt,” said Rasheed Ahmed.
“The documentary also quotes Babu Bajrangi, a leader of the Hindu extremist, Modi-supporting group Bajrang Dal, who told an undercover reporter on video that the pogrom was planned and executed by Modi and they were devoid of informing anyone facing death threats.”
However, Bajrangi was later convicted for orchestrating the killing of 97 Muslim men, women, and children during the pogrom and was freed on bail. He claimed that Modi intervened no less than three times to change his judge and get him out of jail.
The letter also stressed on Indian Supreme Court’s setback in investigating these claims and deployment of authoritarian tactics to control the press, imprisoning journalists on false terrorism charges, raiding news organizations, and censoring critics of its handling of COVID-19.
“If you want to uphold your stated principles, I, on behalf of Indian Americans, demand that you immediately lift this cowardly ban on Documentary and refuse all further requests from the Indian government to censor critical reporting produced both in the country and abroad,” urged the council director.
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