Media equipments are pictured outside the entrance of the office building where Indian tax authorities raided BBC's office in New Delhi on Feb. 15.SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images
The Indian tax authorities’ search operation at the BBC’s offices in the country last week on charges of “tax evasion” was an attack on press freedom, say critics who question the timing of the move, as it followed the broadcaster’s January airing of a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Without drawing a link to the documentary or naming the BBC, the income-tax officials said their three-day “survey” at the Mumbai and New Delhi offices “of a prominent International media company” revealed financial irregularities, and that its income and profits were “not commensurate with the scale of operations in India.”
The BBC’s two-part documentary, India: The Modi Question, looks at Mr. Modi’s role in the 2002 Hindu-Muslim riots in Gujarat – during which more than 1,000 people died, mostly Muslims – when he was the state’s chief minister. It aired in Britain last month and received global attention. The Indian government has fiercely criticized it, dismissing it as “a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative.”
As unauthorized clips and YouTube links to the documentary went viral on social media, the government moved to block its viewing in India, invoking emergency laws. Attempts to screen the documentary at various universities were quashed by police officials, and protesting students were detained.
Last week, as the income tax search of digital devices and financial data unfolded at the BBC’s offices, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson, Gaurav Bhatia, defended the measure at a press conference, stating it was not a “raid” but a “tax survey done lawfully.” However, he said, no agency was above the law and the BBC was “the most corrupt corporation in the world” and its reporting “venomous and agenda-driven. … This cannot be tolerated.”
The controversy around the BBC’s documentary and the “tax survey” that followed have become a battlefield for fierce debate on prime time news: While some media critics and government supporters claimed that the BBC is being funded by China to pursue anti-India stories, opposition parties and press-freedom advocates condemned the government for a pattern of increasing censorship.
“If government agencies are unleashed against a reputable international news organization, then it is clear why vast sections of the Indian media dutifully report whatever suits the ruling party,” said Salman Anees Soz, economist and a member of the opposition party, the Indian National Congress, to The Globe and Mail.
The Press Club of India, an association of journalists, labelled the operation on BBC a “clear cut case of vendetta,” while the Editors Guild of India called the move part of a “continuing trend of government agencies being used to intimidate and harass news organizations critical of the ruling establishment.” The crackdown over independent media, both domestic and foreign, is “disturbing and ominous,” said Geeta Seshu, journalist and co-founder of the advocacy group, Free Speech Collective, to The Globe.
The government is attempting is to embroil media houses in a fishing expedition that will ensnare them in prolonged legal battles and bleed them financially, according to Ms Seshu. Reports from inside the BBC offices alleged that that the search operation was carried out in a “hostile” way, with phones confiscated, devices monitored and employees not allowed to work, contradicting the tax authorities’ statement. Ms Seshu called it “intrusive, violative of their privacy, a threat to the journalistic work they do and a challenge to their right to freedom of expression.” India currently ranks 150 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index.
This isn’t the first time the BBC has been targeted in India. It was expelled under emergency rule in the 1970s for another documentary, when the Congress party under Indira Gandhi was in power.
But the current effort to investigate the BBC’s India operations, believe media and legal experts, has served as a “warning” to journalists at large. An anti-foreign media sentiment is brewing. Fringe nationalist Hindu groups protested outside the broadcaster’s offices, holding up “BBC leave India” banners. Petitions were raised in court to ban the BBC’s operations in India, though dismissed by judges.
“The bias and lack of objectivity and frankly continuing colonial mindset are blatantly visible,” said Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs. India’s Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar, said there is a need to “effectively counter the doctored narratives” that can hamper India’s growth story.
Yet, according to some political analysts, the government’s measures to control the narrative have backfired and reflect poorly on India’s democratic image on a global stage – particularly in a year it is hosting the G20 summit. The government’s response has brought more attention to the documentary than it otherwise would have received, commentator Sanjaya Baru said in an interview.
“Here is a government that has an absolute majority in parliament. … What is this fear and this intolerance of criticism or of questioning?,” he added.
The ramifications go beyond BBC, according to Mr. Soz: “Imagine what investors must think about doing business under such circumstances. No wonder so many high net worth individuals have left for other destinations.” And with a diplomatic response from political leaders in Britain and the United States on the matter, he said foreign governments have to protect their own interests and trade relationships.
“We may be alienating many well wishers around the world. It is a bad strategy, if there is one at all.”