A BBC documentary which questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership during the 2002 Gujarat riots will not air in India according to directives issued by the country’s authorities.

The government of India said it has blocked videos and tweets sharing links to the documentary about Mr Modi’s role during the deadly 2002 sectarian riots, calling it “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”

With scant evidence, the documentary claimed that the prime minister, a Hindu who was the premier of Gujarat state at the time, ordered police to turn a blind eye to the orgy of violence that killed at least 1,000 people, most of whom were minority Muslims.

The documentary relied on a previously classified British foreign ministry report which quoted unnamed sources as alleging that Mr Modi met senior police officers and “ordered them not to intervene” in the anti-Muslim violence by right-wing Hindu groups that followed.

The report concluded that the violence was “politically motivated” with a weighty claim that the aim “was to purge Muslims from Hindu areas.”

The “systematic campaign of violence has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing” and was impossible “without the climate of impunity created by the State Government … Narendra Modi is directly responsible,” it concluded.

The Indian Supreme Court conducted an extensive investigation into the claims through a special investigative team appointed by the apex court. It concluded in 2012 that it did not find any evidence to prosecute Mr Modi.

Government adviser, Kanchan Gupta, announced via his Twitter account that the government had exercised its lawful powers to block the divisive documentary from airing as well as from being shared on social media.

“Videos sharing @BBCWorld hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage, disguised as ‘documentary,’ on @YouTube and tweets sharing links to the BBC documentary have been blocked under India’s sovereign laws and rules,” he said.

Mr Gupta disclosed that over 50 tweets were taken down with links to YouTube videos in compliance with the directive issued.

Twitter and YouTube have equally received directives from the government and have complied, he said.

Mr Gupta added that several ministries have examined the documentary and “found it casting aspersions on the authority and credibility of Supreme Court of India, sowing divisions among various Indian communities, and making unsubstantiated allegations.”

He said that “Accordingly, @BBCWorld’s vile propaganda was found to be undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India, and having the potential to adversely impact India’s friendly relations with foreign countries as also public order within the country.”