New Delhi: Over 300 distinguished Indians that includes retired judges, retired bureaucrats and armed forces veterans wrote an open letter slamming the BBC’s latest documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling it a ‘Delusions of British Imperial Resurrection?’

Eminent Indians signed the letter which lambasted the BBC series which the signatories say “is based on delusional and evidently lopsided reporting” that presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India’s existence as an independent, democratic nation.

“Yet again, the staple, dyed-in-the-wool negativity and unrelenting prejudice of the BBC toward India has resurfaced as a documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question’. This production, the BBC claims, has been rigorously researched according to the highest editorial standards, and examines the tensions between India’s Hindu majority and Muslim minority and explores the politics of India’s PM Narendra Modi in relation to those tensions” and a series of controversial policies” implemented by him,” the letter states.

Over 300 distinguished citizens of India who appended their signature to the open letter calling out @BBCWorld for its anti-India propaganda https://t.co/BQYYoL6TDH

— DeshGujarat (@DeshGujarat) January 21, 2023

The letter further reads, “Not only is this BBC series, judging on what we have seen of it so far, based on delusion and evidently lopsided reporting, but it presumes to question the very basis of the 75-year-old edifice of India’s existence as an independent, democratic nation, a nation which functions according to the will of the people of India.”

The eminent Indians said this documentary is “a visibly motivated charge sheet against our leader, a fellow Indian and a patriot.”

“Regardless of whom you, as an individual Indian, might have voted for, the Prime Minister of India is the Prime Minister of your country, our country. We cannot allow just about anyone to run amok with their deliberate bias, their vacuous reasoning hiding behind phrases like ‘it was widely reported’ or that ‘there were pretty credible reports,” they said.

“All these allegations have been painstakingly dissected and dismissed by the Supreme Court of India. So now this resurrected accusation – contradicting the Supreme Court verdict – has to be believed only because a British media outlet has made it?” the letter questions.

UK’s British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired a two-part series attacking PM Modi’s tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister during the Gujarat riots of 2002. The documentary sparked outrage and was removed from select platforms.

Here is the full text of the letter.