America
BBC suspends anti-Indian jibes' host for punching producer
By
By Arul Louis New York, March 11
The British Broadcasting
Corporation, which supported a TV host who made racist anti-Indian
jibes, has now suspended him over a fight he had with a producer.
BBC
announced on Tuesday that Jeremy Clarkson, the host of Top Gear
programme, was suspended “following a fracas†with a producer.
The
terse statement said “no one else has been suspended†and that Top
Gear, a show about motoring, will not be aired Sunday. BBC gave no
further details but the Guardian reported that Clarkson threw “a punch
at a male producer†during a filming last week.
Besides racist
taunts against Indians, Clarkson's history includes using ugly terms for
people of African descent and for Southeast Asians. He also made
offensive jokes about Mexicans and Chinese drowning-victims on BBC
broadcasts.
All along, BBC had not taken any action against him for racist slur.
In
a show broadcast in 2011, he installed a toilet in the trunk of a
Jaguar and drove around slums where he took off his pants in public,
claiming to show Indians how to press pants with a device that he said
he used to make chapatis.
The Indian programme used railway
carriages in a segment to display obscenities. A banner reading, “Eat
English Muffins,†was strung across the carriages in a such a way that
when the carriages separated an obscenity showed up. The other, “The
United Kingdom promotes BRITISH IT FOR YOUR COMPANY†turned into a jibe
about excreta.
The Daily Mail reported that Indian diplomats had
agreed to making the programme in India after its produces wrote to them
that it would be a “light-hearted road tripâ€.
An outline of the
programme had claimed that it would show “spontaneous interaction
between the presenters and their environment†and that it would
emphasise “local car culture†and show “beautiful scenery, busy city
scenes, local charm and colour,†the newspaper reported.
When
complaints were made about the programme about India, BBC stood behind
Clarkson. According to the Daily Mail, a BBC statement said, “It's
simply not the case that we displayed a hostile or superior attitude to
our hosts (India).â€
A BBC spokesperson quoted by the newspaper
said, “If viewers or religious groups want to complain, they can
complain to the BBC. We won't be responding through the media.â€
BBC's director general at that time, Mark Thompson is now the chief executive officer of the New York Times.
The
Telegraph reported that after the programme was aired, a spokesperson
for BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten said he stood by his comment that
Top Gear was one of the leading “cultural†exports of Britain.
(Arul Louis can be contacted at [email protected])