Indian tax authorities have raided the offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the country in the wake of a documentary that examined Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in 2002 anti-Muslim riots, according to the BBC.
In a tweet, the BBC news department’s press office on Tuesday said the tax authorities were “currently at the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are fully cooperating”.
“We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible,” the statement said.
A source at the company told Al Jazeera that employees’ laptops and mobile phones had been seized. Those in the offices at the time of the raid were not allowed to leave and employees scheduled for night shifts were told not to come in pending further advice, the source said.
The Indian government did not immediately release any details on the search, but a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the broadcaster of engaging in “anti-India propaganda” but said the raids were lawful and the timing had nothing to do with the government.
“India is a country which gives an opportunity to every organisation,” Gaurav Bhatia told reporters, “as long as you don’t spew venom.”
“If you have been following the law of the country, if you have nothing to hide why be afraid of an action that is according to the law?”
The opposition Congress party condemned the raids, saying there was an “undeclared emergency” in the country.
The raids come weeks after Modi’s government banned a BBC documentary – titled “India: The Modi Question” – that probed his role in the anti-Muslim riots in 2002 in the state of Gujarat, where he was chief minister at the time.
More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in one of the worst incidents of religious violence in independent India. The violence erupted after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims caught fire, killing 59.
The documentary, which was not officially made available in India, but was uploaded on several social media platforms and shared widely, also revealed for the first time an unreleased United Kingdom government report that said events had “all the hallmarks of an ethnic cleansing”, the documentary showed. The report said Modi was “directly responsible for a climate of impunity” that led to the violence, and that he had ordered senior police officers not to intervene.
But the Indian leader has rejected accusations that he did not do enough to intervene in the riots. He has since been cleared by India’s top court.
BBC
Efforts by the government to block the documentary’s spread on YouTube and Twitter have created a political maelstrom for Modi ahead of general elections in 2024.
International rights groups have accused Modi’s government of suppressing free speech and abusing the emergency blocking provision of the country’s controversial Information Technology Rules 2021.
The legal community in India has been divided over whether the specific rule cited by the government, which allows it to block any online news content in the country if it threatens national security, can still be used since several high courts have stayed parts of the legislation.
Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that ordering social media platforms to block the documentary constitutes “an attack on the free press that flagrantly contradicts the country’s stated commitment to democratic ideals”.
India has fallen to 150th place of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, the country’s lowest position ever.
Media outlets, international rights groups and foreign charities have also found themselves subjected to scrutiny by India’s tax authorities and financial crimes investigators.
Amnesty International announced it was halting operations in India after the government froze its bank accounts in 2020, following raids on its offices.
Authorities and university officials have also sought to stop screenings of the documentary, with police in Delhi most recently arresting students who had gathered to watch the film, which tracked Modi’s early years as a politician and his rise through the ranks of the governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
