Income Tax officials held a survey at the offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Mumbai and Delhi on Tuesday, February 14. Sources told TNM that the phones of employees present have not been taken away but questioning is underway currently. The survey comes days after the BBC documentary titled ‘India: The Modi Question’ was blocked in India by the Union government.
NDTV quoted I-T officials as saying that this was an exercise to check the news broadcaster’s accounts, and not a raid. The I-T action comes amid a controversy over the BBC’s recent documentary titled India: The Modi Question. While the first part of the documentary explores the Gujarat riots of 2002 under Narendra Modi, the second looks at his government’s policies vis a vis the minorities since he became the PM in 2014. Spokespersons of the Union government and BJP had reacted sharply to the BBC documentary.
Soon after the documentary was released, the Union government issued directions to YouTube and Twitter to block videos and posts sharing the link to the documentary. The directions were issued by Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on January 20, using the emergency powers under the IT Rules, 2021. India’s Ministry of External Affairs also called the documentary a “propaganda piece”.
This is a developing story.