Officials from India’s Income Tax Department raided the BBC headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday, three members of its staff reported, weeks after the British broadcaster aired a controversial documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The employees requested anonymity since they were not permitted to talk publicly.
The BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai were raided by tax inspectors, according to the Press Trust of India, citing anonymous officials. They stated that the department is reviewing records pertaining to the BBC’s corporate operations as well as those pertaining to its Indian affiliate.
The Indian tax authorities did not respond. The BBC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last month, the BBC aired a documentary named “India: The Modi Question” in the United Kingdom, which probed PM Modi’s role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, where he was chief government at the time. Over a thousand people were slain.
PM Modi has disputed charges that officials under his command permitted and even encouraged the killing
PM Modi has disputed charges that officials under his command permitted and even encouraged the killing, and the Supreme Court has concluded there is insufficient evidence to charge him. Last year, the court denied a petition from a Muslim victim challenging PM Modi’s exoneration.
The second installment of the two-part documentary “examines the track record of Narendra Modi’s government following his re-election in 2019,” according to the film’s description on the BBC website.
The documentary was banned by the Indian government, and authorities hurried to block screenings and restrict social media clips of it, a move that critics and political opponents denounced as an assault on press freedom.
To halt the initiative, the government used emergency powers under the information technology laws. Twitter and YouTube agreed with government instructions, and numerous links to the documentary were erased.
The documentary was deemed a “propaganda work aimed to advance a particularly discredited narrative” by India’s Foreign Ministry at the time. Many members of PM Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party denounced the initiative as an affront to India’s sovereignty.
In a statement at the time, the BBC stated that the program was “rigorously researched” and included a diverse spectrum of voices and viewpoints.
“We offered the Indian Government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series — it declined to respond,” the statement said.
Hindu right-wing nationalists petitioned the Supreme Court for a blanket ban on the BBC
In the aftermath of the program, Hindu right-wing nationalists petitioned the Supreme Court for a blanket ban on the BBC. The judge rejected their request as “absolutely meritless.”
The search of the BBC’s offices is “undemocratic” and “reeks of desperation and shows that the Modi government is scared of criticism,” tweeted K.C. Venugopal, general secretary of the opposition Congress party. “We condemn these intimidation tactics in the harshest terms.”
In recent years, India’s Muslim minority has faced violence at the hands of Hindu nationalists empowered by a prime minister who has done little about such attacks since his election in 2014.
Human Rights Watch previously stated that the documentary’s suspension represents a broader crackdown on minorities under the Modi government, which the rights group claims has repeatedly used draconian legislation to silence dissent.
