A BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots that has sparked controversy is a “conspiracy” against India, said Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai on Thursday.

The “character assassination of the prime minister” amounts to an onslaught, insult and a malicious act against the country, said the governor during his address after inspecting a Republic Day parade near Panaji.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs has criticised the documentary titled “India: The Modi Question” as a “propaganda piece” that lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset.

Governor Pillai said that the present controversy was “ill-motivated”, adding in the same breath that he was “not criticising Britain which is one of the friendly countries of India now”.

Unlike a common citizen who can approach the court in case of character assassination, the PM, President, Vice President and ministers have to be represented by public prosecutors in such cases, he said. “This means character assassination of the Prime Minister amounts to an onslaught, an insult, a malicious act against the country. That is why I would like to say BBC’s present act is not good,” he said.

The governor said that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is not an independent organisation. “It is answerable to British Parliament. I am not blaming the British government but there’s some conspiracy against India,” he said.

Pillai said that he does not want to go much into the present circumstances but after PM Modi "became the head of the G20 group", he has given a call for “one world, one family, one future”.

India has taken over the presidency - which rotates annually between members - of the Group of Twenty countries.

Talking to reporters later, the governor said that under the system of law followed by “us and the conventions”, an attack or character assassination of the PM would amount to an attack on the sovereignty of the country.

In this case, the governor, the “attack” on the PM is also a challenge to the Indian Judiciary. “Indian Judiciary is the finest in the world. They had monitored this case (Gujarat riots) and there is nothing to connect the PM to it, not even a whisper is against him,” he said.

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