Income Tax Searches Into BBC Offices In India Is A Panicky Reaction By Centre

By Sushil Kutty

It has started. The Empire has struck back, the undeclared emergency is out in the open. Teams of Income Tax officials landed in BBC’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai on Valentine’s Day to conduct what it called ‘surveys’, and not ‘raids’. The “surveys” were on at multiple locations.

Recall that the Modi government is livid with the BBC for its documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’, which analysed the happenings in Gujarat in 2002, when communal riots following the Godhra train burning killed over 2000 people including the 59 burned to death in the train burning at Godhra railway station.

The BBC documentary ‘The Modi Question’ rattled the Modi Government, catching it totally by surprise. It did not surprise, however, when the government got Twitter and YouTube to blank the documentary in India. But that did not stop people from getting the “offending documentary” screened across India, much to the disgust and disappointment of the BJP and the Modi Government.

People have been watching ‘The Modi Question’ openly and surreptitiously. The more the government let loose on free-speech advocates and proponents, the more people got together to arrange for community screenings with college students leading from the front. In Delhi University, at the JNU campus and in the Jadavpur University in Kolkata.

In Delhi University and JNU, lathi-waving cops in the campuses in their attempts to stop the screenings, only earned the Modi government more ‘bad press’, more than what the authorities had bargained for. The BBC’s ‘India: The Modi Question’ wasn’t going anywhere without spreading the answers to the question far and wide to more and more.

Then, the Adani-gate! A double whammy to the solar plexus. The Modi government has been fighting on two fronts. Actually, like the fighting General said, on two-and-a-half fronts; the opposition parties, the bad press, and the outraged among the general public, the ones who have been stealing sneak shows of ‘Modi The Question’.

For the Prime Minister the BBC documentary couldn’t have come at a worst time. Just when India had assumed the G20 presidency and Modi was set to use it to the advantage of India and to his own self-aggrandizement. World leaders have stood by Modi but his global standing was damaged and that’s no guarantee that he won’t miss the Nobel!

The lousy thing for Modi is ‘Adani-gate’. It’s being compared to Watergate and what happened to President Richard Nixon and Nixon was the one who opened up to the Chinese! China and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have a fatal attraction, which can be the subject for yet another BBC documentary. The more the merrier!

It’s not funny. Not for the Modi government, not for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and not for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Also not for the BBC. It would rather make more documentaries than be raided for conducting what are called “boring surveys”. The targets are the accounts and the marketing departments. Mobile phones have been confiscated and staff sent home.

It is kind of “mean”, even petty. After donkeys’ years, the BBC was being searched for IT irregularities. It smells vendetta, or simply lowlife harassment. Apart from delaying operations and forcibly impacting programming, what will the Modi government achieve with the “surveys” of BBC offices?

Apparently, the “surveys” are related to “tax evasion investigation”. They are looking for incriminating documents. The BBC’s business operations are getting ‘The Modi Treatment’. And it comes when Rahul Gandhi is asking for a JPC on Adani-gate. Is the crackdown on the BBC a diversionary tactic to divert attention from Adani-gate?

The two-part ‘India: The Modi Question’ is a docu-series on “Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s response to the 2002 Gujarat riots”. The Modi government has called it “a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative”.

The Modi government questioned the intent and timing of the documentary that took two years in the making. It was charged with “undermining the sovereignty and integrity of India”, and “adversely impact” India’s “friendly relations with foreign states”. Also disturb “public order within the country”.

The Income Tax department surveys, however, look equally if not more suspicious. Just like the government questioned the “intent and timing” of ‘Modi the Question’, the timing and intent of the raids in the name of surveys are also suspect. Coming as they are in the midst of Adani-gate which has the potential to turn into a full-blown financial and political scandal that has in it the marks to bring down the Modi government. Affect the outcomes of elections 2023, and general elections 2024. (IPA Service)

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