Indian Lawmaker Calls To Ban BBC India For Spreading 'False Propaganda' On COVID Vaccines

Faizan Hashmi Published March 02, 2021 | 01:46 PM

Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, a lawmaker from India's ruling BJP party, on Tuesday told Sputnik that he would seek a ban on BBC Hindi and BBC India for spreading "false propaganda" on COVID-19 vaccines and other issues

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, a lawmaker from India's ruling BJP party, on Tuesday told Sputnik that he would seek a ban on BBC Hindi and BBC India for spreading "false propaganda" on COVID-19 vaccines and other issues.

In mid-January, BBC Hindi published a story on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and the report has been regularly appearing as a promo ad for the broadcaster on social media. Bagga on Tuesday re-shared a pro-government group's tweet that asked why BBC Hindi is promoting the January 18 report up to this day and said that "@BBCIndia @BBCHindi is Jihadi toolkit, should be ban ASAP [as soon as possible]"

"I will write a letter to the Federal information and broadcasting minister and seek a ban on BBC Hindi and BBC India for their false propaganda. This is an agenda-based portal", the lawmaker said.

According to Bagga, BBC regularly promotes what he described as fake news and the goal of the 18 January article is to "create a confusion in people so that they should not go to take the vaccine."

"What is the agenda of promoting a story they did in January, why is BBC paying money to promote stories did two months ago which were fake anyway? Why are they so interested in highlighting the hesitancy among people about vaccines, which they published two months ago?" the lawmaker said.

Many Indian Twitter users have supported Bagga's call to ban BBC Hindi and BBC India in the country.

Last month, the BBC was banned in China after Beijing condemned the broadcaster's reporting on the alleged persecution of ethnic Uighurs and on the coronavirus.