An RSS-linked weekly has dubbed the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “propaganda to defame India” and claimed the Supreme Court was being used as a “tool by anti-India forces” as it had issued notice to the Centre for blocking the screening of the film.

Strengthening the government’s drive against the London-headquartered public broadcaster, the Panchjanya said in its editorial in Hindi: “The Supreme Court belongs to India and is run with taxes paid by Indians; its job is to function according to Indian legislation and laws and for India. We have created the Supreme Court and maintained it in the interest of the country. But it is being used as a tool by those opposed to the country.”

The Supreme Court has admitted petitions challenging the Modi government’s move to take down social media links to the BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, which examines then chief minister Modi’s role during the 2002 Gujarat riots and thereafter as Prime Minister.

Although the editorial was written before the income tax “surveys” at the BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai, the RSS-linked weekly appeared to be on the same page as the government over its campaign against the international media house. Prime Minister Modi and his managers have sought to frame the BBC documentary and the Hindenburg Research report on the Adani group as a deep-rooted conspiracy by “anti-India forces” that are unable to digest the “rising global stature” of the country under him.

The Panchjanya editorial claimed the BBC documentary was part of a propaganda against India and “false” and “based on fiction”. Though the ruling dispensation has lashed out against the BBC but side-stepped the Hindenburg Research report on Adani, many in the BJP and the RSS see the two as part of a “deep-rooted conspiracy to target Modi and India”.

“The timing of the BBC documentary and the Hindenburg report is not a coincidence but a deep conspiracy,” a BJP leader said.

“Anti-India forces inside and outside the country have been activated in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls,” the leader added.