
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday said that he was not familiar with the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, he added that he was familiar with the shared values that enact the United States and India as two thriving and vibrant democracies.
"I'm not familiar with the documentary you're referring to, however, I am very familiar with the shared values that enact the United States and India as two thriving and vibrant democracies," Ned Price said, according to a report by news agency ANI.
Price was responding to a media query on a BBC documentary, critical of PM Modi’s tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat during the 2002 riots in the state.
Addressing a press briefing on Monday, Price said that there are numerous elements that bolster the US' global strategic partnership with India which include political, economic and exceptionally deep people-to-people ties.
Price also referred to India's democracy as a "vibrant one." He added, "We look to everything that ties us together, and we look to reinforce all of those elements that tie us together," as he underlined the diplomatic ties that US and India share with each other.
Furthermore, Price also stressed the fact that the partnership that the US shares with India is exceptionally deep and that both nations share the values that are common to American democracy and to Indian democracy.
He added that there are a number of elements that undergird the global strategic partnership that US has with its Indian partners. There are close political ties, there are economic ties, and there are exceptionally deep people-to-people ties between the United States and India. But one of those additional elements are the values that we share the values that are common to American democracy and to Indian democracy, he pointed.
Earlier, the Centre criticised the documentary calling it a "propaganda piece designed to push a discredited narrative". The BBC documentary, which was shared on social media platforms, questioned PM Modi's leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots. PM Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat when the communal riots broke out following the burning of a train in Godhra in 2002.
Meanwhile, British PM Rishi Sunak refused to comment on the documentary when his colleague Pakistan-origin MP Imran Hussain asked him about his remarks on the documentary. Sunak without commenting on the series said he “doesn't agree with the characterisation" of his Indian counterpart in the UK's parliament.
(With ANI inputs)
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