By Swasti Chatterjee
An old screenshot taken from a BBC News video story, which shows a map of India excluding Jammu and Kashmir, has been revived amidst calls to ban the broadcaster's two-part documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The BBC's two-part documentary 'India: The Modi Question' has sparked a controversy and protests across India calling for a ban on the news outlet. The documentary, whose screening has been restricted in India, focuses on the 2002 Gujarat riots, when PM Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat. The Ministry of External Affairs has 'trashed the documentary as a propaganda piece and termed it as a piece that lacked objectivity and reflected a colonial mindset."
Against this backdrop, a screenshot of BBC's website showing a map of India minus Jammu and Kashmir, is circulating on Twitter.
Sudarshan News editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke tweeted the screenshot and tagged Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, and BBC Hindi while calling for an investigation.
In a tweet, featuring a screenshot taken from a mobile phone, a distorted map of India can be seen, along with a masthead of the BBC, search bar and drop down menu. The screenshot appears to be the news section pertaining to Asia and has two other sections of China and India.
Chavhanke in his tweet wrote, "An investigation is a must on the BBC after this kind of act." (Original caption in Hindi: इस हरकत के बाद तो @bbc पर कार्रवाई होनी ही चाहिए )
The same screenshot was tweeted by Rishi Bagree with the caption, "BBC removes Kashmir from Indian Map." Click here to view the tweet's archive.
The edited screenshot is also circulating on Facebook with a similar caption.
Screenshot from 2015 report
BOOM first checked the mobile version of the BBC website but did not find the Asia, China and India sections which appear in Chavhanke's screenshot.
We then ran a reverse image search on the viral screenshot, and were directed to a news report on a tweet by former Defence Minister AK Anthony's son Anil K Anthony. In the tweet Anil Anthony used the entire screenshot of the Indian map of the viral image, along with other instances when the BBC had displayed distorted images of the Indian map without Kashmir.
Taking cue from this, we found the original report of the BBC titled Modi Miles: Why is India PM Narendra Modi always flying?
The 2.33 minute report was uploaded on November 12, 2015 and is not a recent story.
The description of the video reads, "Narendra Modi is set to visit London's Wembley stadium on his first visit to the UK as India's prime minister. It is the latest in a series of high-profile international events since Mr Modi was elected 18 months ago - as BBC Business editor Kamal Ahmed explains."
Below is a comparison of the original screenshot from BBC's website, and the cropped screenshot that Chavhanke and Rishi Bagree have shared.
In the past, the BBC has apologised for displaying incomplete and distorted India map, which excluded Jammu and Kashmir. Click here to read.
