China funding BBC propaganda? BJP MP’s allegations amid row over series on PM

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani has alleged that the BBC needed money “desperately” and was taking it from Chinese-linked Huawei.

The Rajya Sabha MP’s claim came amidst an ongoing controversy over the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Why is BBC so anti-India? Because it needs money desperately enough to take it from Chinese state-linked Huawei and pursue the latter’s agenda (BBC a fellow traveller, Comrade Jairam?)It’s a simple cash-for-propaganda deal. BBC is up for sale,” Mahesh Jethmalani said.

The BJP MP shared a link to a story published in the UK magazine The Spectator in August, 2022, which alleged that the BBC was taking money from Huawei. Speaking to India Today, BJP leader Amit Malviya claimed that the documentary was being used to “torpedo India’s growth story”.

“It is a well known fact that several Chinese companies sponsored by their government have dealings with the BBC and have also bankrolled the BBC in the last couple of years. So it is quite likely that the Chinese establishment with the BBC and with our opposition in tow is using this documentary to torpedo India’s growth story,” Amit Malviya said on Tuesday.

He added, “The Supreme Court has exonerated PM Modi. We can’t have foreign media agency dictate to India what its public discourse should be. We will not allow that kind of interference.”

Meanwhile, Congress MP Karti Chidambaram said that the government’s method in dealing with the BBC documentary by banning it is “childish”.

“I think if the (BJP) MP has solid evidence (on Chinese funding BBC series), he should go to the appropriate oversight body in Britain and expose the BBC. This is quite childish,” Karti Chidambaram said.

Talking about the government banning the BBC series, Karti Chidambaram said, “If the government believes the documentary is factually incorrect, they must come with a counter-narrative instead of banning it. In this modern age, nothing can be banned. People will find ways around it and will watch it. People will disseminate and distribute it. Banning is a crude method.”

He added, “If they really want to talk about China, they should talk about Chinese incursions into the Indian territory and the building of infrastructure on the land that belongs to us.”

The two-part BBC series “India: The Modi Question” has stoked a controversy since it was first released. While the documentary claims it investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was the chief minister of the state, the government has termed the series a “propaganda piece”.