Income tax department raided BBC office
BBC offices in India were raided by tax officials just weeks after the release of a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was subsequently blocked by the government.
According to those working at the broadcaster, more than a dozen officials from the country's Income Tax Department came to the BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai, where hundreds of staff are based, to "survey". Documents and phones of many journalists were taken and offices were sealed.
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Authorities told local media that the searches carried out on Tuesday morning were part of a tax evasion probe into the BBC's business operations in India and that a number of accounts and financial files had been seized.
The BBC confirmed the raid on its offices and said it was co-operating fully. "We hope that this situation will be resolved as soon as possible," the statement said.
The raids come at a time when the BBC is at the center of a controversy in India over a two-part documentary series, India: The Modi Question, which focuses on the role that Modi, who was then chief minister of Gujarat, played in the violence. Played in Hindu. -Muslim riots that broke out in his state in 2002 and killed more than 2,000 people, mostly Muslims.
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Modi has been accused of his involvement in violence over the years, and was banned from the US for nearly a decade because of it. The BBC documentary revealed that a British government document from the time found Modi "directly responsible" for not stopping the killings of Muslims during the riots, and said the violence had "all the hallmarks of genocide". Were.
The series was not released in India but prompted an outcry from the Modi government, which accused the broadcaster of favoritism and a "colonial mindset", pointing out that Modi was cleared of all charges by a Supreme Court panel in 2012. was freed.
Emergency laws were invoked to ban any links or clips of the documentary being shared on social media. In defiance of the ban, students across the country staged screenings of the documentary at universities, and many were detained by police.
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The BBC has stood by the documentary, stating that it was "rigorously researched in accordance with the highest editorial standards".
Following the discoveries, Gaurav Bhatia, a spokesman for Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), described the BBC as "the most corrupt organization in the world" and accused them of "poisonous, shallow and agenda-driven reporting".
“If any company or organization is operating in India, they have to follow the Indian law. If you are following the law then why are you afraid? The [tax] department should be allowed to do its job," Bhatia said.
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The BBC raid was criticized by members of the opposition. Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said in a tweet, "When India was chairing the G20, PM Modi was openly pushing India towards totalitarianism and dictatorship."
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav said, "When a government stands for fear and repression instead of fearlessness, one must understand that the end is near."
The BBC has come under increasing scrutiny since the furore over the documentary, including a petition to the Supreme Court to ban the BBC in India, which was rejected by judges.
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The raids come amid increasing pressure on the media since Modi came to power in 2014. Journalists and news organizations that have criticized the BJP government have faced harassment, raids, criminal cases and tax investigations, and the country has sunk down. Up to 150 out of 180 in the World Press Freedom Index.
The Editors Guild of India described the Income Tax Department's actions as part of a "trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass press organizations critical of government policies or the ruling establishment".
The BBC is the latest organization to fall prey to an investigation into tax evasion after reporting poorly on the Modi government. Oxfam and several think-tanks have been subjected to tax raids, while Amnesty International, which documented the erosion of human rights and persecution of minorities, was forced to shut down its operations in India in 2020 after its accounts were frozen by a central government agency. had to be closed.
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