Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia towards the end of May was tainted through the sold-out screening of the BBC documentary at Parliament House in Canberra on Wednesday 24 May highlighting his role in the Gujarat massacres in 2002.
The documentary India: The Modi Question, which highlighted a secret UK government report that claimed Modi was “directly responsible” for enabling massacres, which it said bore “all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing”, has been banned in India using the Modi government’s emergency powers.
The screening was followed by a panel discussion which included Dr Aakashi Bhatt, daughter of jailed former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt; Professor Mohan Dutta of the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE); Dr Kalpana Wilson of the South Asian Solidarity Group; Senator Jordan Steele-John and Senator David Shoebridge.
Dr Bhatt’s powerful story of the heroism and sacrifice of her father, Sanjiv butt, the only living person to have come forward as a witness to Modi’s instruction to Gujarat law enforcement to allow the massacres to occur without intervention was the highlight of the event.
Senators Steel-John and Shoebridge iterated the need to have close ties with India but the greater need for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to speak the truth and raise the human rights issues in India with Modi.
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