Foreign minister S Jaishankar ripped into western media for "playing politics" in the garb of propagating freedom of speech or spreading democratic views during an interaction with news agency ANI.
India's top diplomat said that the people who couldn't take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi electorally were conducting "politics" under the veil of the media but such individuals or organizations will not succeed as citizens of the country were aware of their nefarious designs.
"We are not debating just a documentary or a speech that somebody gave in a European city or a newspaper edits somewhere -- we are debating, actually politics, which is being conducted ostensibly as media -- there is a phrase 'war by other means' this is politics by another means -- I mean you will do a hatchet job, you want to do a hatchet job and say this is just another quest for truth which we decided after 20 years to put at this time," he said.
Scandalous BBC Documentary
The documentary named "India: The Modi Question," raised allegations about Modi's tenure as Gujarat state chief during the 2002 riots in the state.
Notably, the film led to massive political row in India given that it ignored the Supreme Court-monitored investigation that cleared Modi of any wrongdoing in the communal massacre.
With the BBC documentary released a year before the 2024 national elections, Jaishankar went on to say that its timing, in fact, wasn't "accidental".
"I mean, come on, you think timing is accidental! Let me tell you one thing - I don't know if the election season has started in India, Delhi or not, but, for sure it has started in London, New York," the 68-year-old senior BJP politician added.
Jaishankar then declared that things like the BBC documentary or billionaire George Soros' words were made only to create an "extremist image of India" and the "Prime Minister".
"I mean, do you doubt it? Look who the cheerleaders are. What is happening is, just like I told you -- this drip, drip, drip -- how do you shape a very extremist image of India, of the government, of the BJP, of the Prime Minister. I mean, this has been going on for a decade, " Jaishankar responded to a query about the western press' biased approach towards PM Modi and his government.
"Why suddenly there is a surge of reports and attention and views? I mean, were some of these things not happening earlier. Many things happened in Delhi in 1984, why don't we see a documentary on that? If that was your concern, you suddenly feel one day, "I am very humanistic, I must get justice for people who have been wronged, " he asked.
Jaishankar advised the people of India not to get influenced by such statements because the people who wanted to make the nation weak were running such agendas.
"This is politics at play by people who do not have the courage to come into the political field. They want to have that teflon cover saying that I am an NGO, media organisation etc. They are playing politics," Jaishankar stressed.
This isn't the first time Jaishankar has blasted the government's critics, particularly PM Modi's detractors who are settled abroad.
Last week, he dubbed Hungarian-American business tycoon Soros who had accused PM Modi of being hand-in-glove with embattled Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, a "dangerous" man.
"I could take a view that the individual in question, Mr Soros, is an old, rich, opinionated person sitting in New York who still thinks that his views should determine how the entire world works," he said during a public event in Sydney.