Indian tax officers raided the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai on Tuesday, weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government tried to block the release of a broadcast documentary. This image criticizes his treatment of the country’s Muslim minority.
The Indian government under Mr Modi has often used such attacks against independent media organisations, human rights groups and think tanks in what activists call an attempt to harass. critical voices by targeting their funding sources. Human rights groups have repeatedly expressed concern about press freedom is curtailed, with journalists and activists jailed for long periods or mired in protracted lawsuits in India’s labyrinthine justice system.
A spokesman for India’s ruling party confirmed the BBC’s attacks at a press conference. About a dozen tax officers stormed the British public broadcaster’s office in central New Delhi just before noon, blocking the entrance to the fifth floor of the building where the BBC’s office, a police officer was stationed. on duty outside the building said.
Gaurav Bhatia, a spokesman for Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, said the BBC had nothing to fear if it had done nothing wrong. He then launched verbal attacks on the broadcaster, including calling its reporting propaganda.
“It can’t be the whims and fantasies of a corporation,” Mr Bhatia said at the press conference, giving what he called an example of a “hidden agenda” in the BBC report. “This cannot be tolerated.”
In a brief statement on Tuesday afternoon, the BBC said: “The Income Tax Authority is present at BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, and we are fully cooperating. We hope this situation will be resolved as soon as possible.”
The BBC’s two-part documentary, “India: The Question of Modi,” re-enacts Mr. Modi’s role during one of India’s bloodiest periods of community violence, in Gujarat, when he was state premier two decades ago. It also looks at his party’s treatment of the country’s 200 million Muslims since he became prime minister in 2014.
The death of nearly 60 Hindu pilgrims in a fire on a train in 2002, which Modi’s supporters blamed on local Muslim groups, triggered a wave of retaliatory violence in the region. over 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed, and about 150,000 were uprooted.
Mr. Modi has long faced questions about whether his state government, instead of curbing anger, encouraged crowds. While much of the BBC documentary’s narrative is well known in India, it also includes a secret British government report blaming Mr. Modi for retaliatory violence.
His lieutenants questioned the documentary’s timing. They said by reviving old charges that Mr. Modi had dismissed by India’s Supreme Court, the BBC was launching an attack on India’s rise on the global stage under its full leadership. power of this country.
The documentary quickly became the focus of India’s tumultuous domestic politics, as the government tried to block its distribution in the country — go as far as cut off electricity and detain student leaders before screening at universities.
BBC defended his reportsays that the documentary has been “well researched” and that “a wide range of voices, witnesses and experts have been approached, and we have provided many opinions, including feedback from those in BJP”
Sameer Yasir contribution report.
