Delhi, India: Indian income tax authorities have conducted a search of BBC headquarters as part of their investigation. This comes weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the UK.
The BBC stated that it was “fully cooperating” with authorities. When students gathered to watch the movie last month in Delhi, authorities detained some of them. The prime minister’s involvement in anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, while he was the state’s chief minister, was the subject of the documentary.
According to Mr. KC Venugopal, general secretary of the opposition Congress party, the search “reeks of desperation and shows that the Modi government is scared of criticism.”
“We condemn these intimidation tactics in the harshest terms. This undemocratic and dictatorial attitude cannot go on any longer,” Mr. Venugopal tweeted.
The documentary draws attention to an unpublished dossier that the BBC got from the UK Foreign Office and which casts doubt on Mr. Modi’s behaviour during the 2002 riots. The unrest started the day after a Hindu pilgrim train was set on fire, leaving hundreds of people dead. In the ensuing bloodshed, almost 1,000 individuals, predominantly ‘Muslims’, died.
According to the Foreign Office report, Mr. Modi “directly” contributed to the “climate of impunity” that encouraged the violence. Under a law that prevents entry of foreign officials suspected of “severe violations of religious freedom,” the US denied Mr. Modi a visa in 2005.
Mr. Modi has consistently denied the allegations made against him and has not expressed regret for the riots. A Supreme Court panel also stated in 2013 that there was not enough evidence to bring charges against him.
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