The Indian government has issued directives for the blocking of multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to BBC documentary "India: The Modi Question", several Indian media outlets reported today.

The directions were reportedly issued by Apurva Chandra, secretary of India's information and broadcasting ministry, on Friday using the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021, the media said quoting unnamed sources.

They said senior officials of several ministries, including external affairs, home, and information and broadcasting, examined the documentary and found it to be an attempt to cast aspersions on the authority and credibility of the Supreme Court, sow divisions among various Indian communities, and make unsubstantiated allegations regarding actions of foreign governments in India.

They said the documentary was found to be undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India and having the potential to adversely impact friendly relations with foreign states, as well as, public order within the country.

Orders have also been issued to Twitter to block over 50 tweets containing links of the YouTube videos concerned, they said, adding that social media platforms have complied with the directives.

The Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi on Thursday described the BBC documentary as a "propaganda piece" that lacked objectivity and reflected a colonial mindset.

The two-part BBC documentary claims it investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state.

A group of 302 former judges, ex-bureaucrats and veterans today slammed the BBC documentary as a "motivated charge sheet against our leader, a fellow Indian and a patriot" and a reflection of its "dyed-in-the-wool negativity and unrelenting prejudice".

They said "it is the archetype of past British imperialism in India setting itself up as both judge and jury to resurrect Hindu-Muslim tensions that were overwhelmingly the creation of the British Raj policy of divide and rule."