Western Media Seeking To Sink Modi's Reelection Bid Over Independent Foreign Policy

Shirokov - Recent attempts by Western media to discredit Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by linking him to the 2002 anti-Muslim riots and the ongoing Sikh unrest are likely the result of a coordinated smear campaign that aims to sink his 2024 reelection bid, experts told Sputnik

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th March, 2023) Shirokov - Recent attempts by Western media to discredit Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi by linking him to the 2002 anti-Muslim riots and the ongoing Sikh unrest are likely the result of a coordinated smear campaign that aims to sink his 2024 reelection bid, experts told Sputnik.

This comes against the backdrop of growing Western criticism of India as the South Asian country's independent foreign policy aspirations come at odds with the West's ongoing attempts to isolate Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

A 'CHARACTER ASSASSINATION' ATTEMPT

The BBC aired a controversial two-part documentary film in January titled "India: The Modi Question," linking Prime Minister Modi, at the time the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, to the anti-Muslim riots that rocked the western province in 2002.

"In the case of Modi, no central scheme of his excludes India's minorities, yet a campaign is ongoing within a section of Western media that he is against minorities, especially Muslims and Christians ... As for the recent 2-part BBC documentary on Modi, it was an obvious hit job, a cut and paste effort at character assassination," Madhav Nalapat, vice-chair of the Manipal Advanced Research Group and professor of geopolitics at India's Manipal University, told Sputnik

The film's release sparked outrage in the Indian political establishment, prompting India's tax authorities to raid BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai. India invoked emergency laws to ban the controversial documentary after the top Indian court rejected an appeal to bar the broadcaster from operating in the country.

"Exactly the way the BBC reports on the Ukraine conflict, when it serves as just a propaganda vehicle, in the case of Modi, BBC has almost always sought to present our PM in a bad light," Nalapat added.

Major General Dhruv Katoch, an Indian military expert and director of India Foundation research center, voiced similar concerns. He suggested that Western media led a smear campaign against Modi as part of a broader effort to incite unrest in the country.

"We will see incidents similar to the farmers' protests in India, which will be supported and funded from outside. We will see communal riots attempted to be created on frivolous grounds, but several will come up over the next few months, and then these will become huge agitations," Katoch told Sputnik.

The northern Indian state of Punjab cracked down on Waris Punjab De, a Punjabi separatist organization, following clashes that broke out in March between the group and state police over delays in the release of Sikh prisoners from jail.

"I believe that there is support from certain Western intelligence agencies, with the aim of pressuring India on certain issues. It is just another issue that is used to pressure India .

.. it cannot happen without their commandments, and their aim is not to weaken India to that extent, but rather to pressurize India to tow a particular line," Katoch said.

Linked to the "Khalistan" separatist movement, Waris Punjab De was soon thrust into the spotlight of Western media after Indian authorities ordered an internet blackout and banned public gatherings across Punjab as it searched for the group's 30-year-old leader, Amritpal Singh.

"While these groups are small, once they carry out their activities they are magnified in the media, which creates an impact ... once the media across the globe starts covering the situation, a narrative starts being built that India is actually not an equal-opportunity country for all communities, and that in this case the Sikhs are being targeted. That is the narrative which they intend to build," Katoch said.

Nalapat, the Khalistan movement, linked in the 1980s to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), has been operating with the tacit approval of the West, namely counties that are home to large Sikh communities.

"I do not think that the CIA would try and stir up violence in India these days the way it did during the earlier Cold War. It is, however, a fact that the police in the US, Canada, Britain and Australia have over the decades not taken any action against anti-India 'Khalistan' groups operating within their territories," Nalapat added.

Katoch has described the situation as a coordinated pressure campaign against Modi that is part of a broader strategy aimed at undermining the prime minister's 2024 reelection bid.

"I believe an attempt is being made at regime change for the forthcoming elections, which will take place in 2024, and these destabilizing actions are one part of this agenda," Katoch said.

India's independent foreign policy aspirations and its neutral stand on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the face of Western pressure have upset a number of Western countries, the military expert said.

"We have a dispensation now that looks into what India wants, and Indian interests are coming first, and we are not going to sacrifice that interest for any external power ... and this is something that people don't like, which is why I believe that there will be an attempt at regime change, because a strong dispensation works against this particular agenda of external powers," Katoch added.

The Western leaders have on numerous occasions criticized India's stance on the Ukrainian crisis, particularly a sharp increase in Russian oil exports that was recorded despite the West's sanctions on Russia. Russian Ambassador to India called these statements a reflection of "double standards."