Searches in offices in Delhi and Mumbai come weeks after the release of BBC documentary critical of prime minister Narendra Modi.
the British government is ‘closely monitoring reports of latest tax surveys by income tax officials conducted at the offices of the BBC in India’ the foreign media drew a link between Tuesday’s tax “surveys” and the Modi government’s orders a few weeks ago barring the circulation of the documentary on social media platforms. The income tax “surveys” at BBC offices have upended the Centre’s efforts to project India as the “mother of democracy”, with foreign media highlighting the assault on media freedom and the larger issue of shrinking democracy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India’s ranking as per press freedom index is already declining and presently India stands at 150 out of 180 countries surveyed and it’s been continuously slipping since 2014 with the start of BJP regime under PM Narinder Modi. Just like the government’s attempt to block the BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question, had the opposite effect and brought it more eyeballs, the tax swoop on the British public broadcaster put the international media’s attention squarely on the BJP government’s record on free speech. Given the BBC’s global standing the international media took note almost in real time and sources said the British government was “closely monitoring reports of tax surveys conducted at the offices of the BBC in India”. There was no official word from either the British high commission in India or the British government till late in the evening.
Tuesday’s action a 60 hour long seize of bbc offices in Delhi and Mumbai and staff being held up in offices with their phones and lap tops taken by survey officials was seen in the foreign media as a case of the government getting back at the BBC for producing the documentary on Modi with special focus on the Gujarat riots of 2002 on his watch and further confirmation of the shrinking space for the media in India since he became Prime Minister. Most of these reports also referred to India slipping on press freedom indices since Modi took charge in 2014. reports in western media even went further and presented a bigger picture of democratic backsliding, drawing attention to similar action against human rights organisations, like Amnesty International India and green peace Ox fam organisations operating in India being under focus, and think tanks and civil society under pressure and critics of the Modi government facing similar restrictions.
There has been an increasingly pressured environment for the media since Modi came to power in 2014. Journalists and news organisations that have published work critical of the BJP government have faced harassment, raids, criminal cases and tax investigations. The BBC is just the latest organisation to be hit with a tax evasion investigation following reports that have reflected poorly on the Modi government. Tax raids have been carried out on Oxfam a worldwide known organisation and several thinktanks, while Amnesty International, which had documented the erosion of human rights and persecution of minorities, had to shutter its India operations in 2020 after its accounts were frozen by a central government agency, Modi’s government has in the past been accused by rights organisations of using allegations of financial misconduct to target its critics, including NGOs, journalists, news organisations and social media platforms like New’s laundry, the wire and national newspapers like Bhaskar opposition politicians.
The New York Times newspaper reported that, The Indian government and it’s investigation organisations under Prime Minister Mr Modi have often used such raids against independent media organisations, human rights groups and think tanks in what activists call an effort to harass critical voices into silence by targeting their funding sources. Rights groups have repeatedly expressed concern about the dwindling freedom of the press, with journalists and activists thrown in jail for long periods or mired in court cases that drag on in India’s labyrinthine judiciary like Bhima koregon case in which noted national poets human rights activists academicians and writers are under continuous detention since many years. The ruling party’s increasingly thin-skinned response to criticism is in stark contrast with India’s rising stature as an emerging power, and a strategically key player in geo political scenario. India has fallen 10 spots to 150 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index… since Modi took office in 2014. Critical reporters, particularly women, say they are subjected to relentless campaigns of online abuse. India has fallen 10 spots to 150 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index… since Modi took office in 2014. Critical reporters, particularly women, say they are subjected to relentless campaigns of online abuse.” The indexes notes that the Indian press used to be viewed as `fairly progressive’ before Modi came to power. The Asia Desk of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in a statement, urged the government to stop harassing journalists. “Raiding the BBC’s India offices in the wake of a documentary criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi smacks of intimidation,” the CPJ’s Asia programme coordinator, Beh Lih Yi, said.
The income tax department’s survey recently at the offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Delhi and Bombay has triggered a war of words between the Indian government ruling party BJP and the opposition it has also subjected the Indian government actions and motives behind this in international scrutiny and questions of assault on the press freedom has surfaced worldwide. Though Indian authorities and BJP has as usual termed this criticism as a discredited narrative and mere propaganda. Indian government has raised questions of bias and lack of objectivity and a colonial mindset aspect. The I-T authorities have termed the survey as a process to investigate issues regarding international taxation and transfer pricing of BBC’s subsidiary companies. Indian officials have accused the broadcaster of diversion of its profits and evasiveness about previous notices by I-T authorities.
The continuous push of Indian investigation agencies to pressurise dissenters and detractors has become common since 2014 when present dispensation came in power. The main aim of this present survey is to bring in focus the credibility and transparency of the broadcaster and a symbol of stern warning. Time will tell if this narrative of Indian authorities will have any affect on the British well regarded broadcasting corporation having a history of well respected investigative journalism. This survey is viewed by the world media and western governments as an intimidating tactic to stifle a dissenting broadcasting voice of an independent world media and an attempt to delegitimise the work done by critical media outlets and corporations. This present survey by I-T department doesn’t seem to auger well for the India’s global image of a functional democracy with constitutionally guaranteed institutional freedoms and separation of powers and unlike authoritarian regimes that have promoted economic prosperity but don’t allow institutional rules and values but this survey is a signal of clear threat to existing freedoms of the citizens of the India.
