General view of Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in
General view of Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London, as the legendary broadcaster celebrates its centenary since its inception on 18th October 1922. Photo credit – Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
On Tuesday, Indian income tax authorities raided the British Broadcasting Corporation’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and said they were conducting a “survey” as part of a broader probe into tax evasion. It comes weeks after the British broadcaster released a documentary critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership during the 2002 sectarian riots in Gujarat, where he was then prime minister, that left over 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslims.
The Indian government has labeled the documentary “hostile propaganda” and “anti-India garbage” and blocked Indians from sharing it on social media platforms.
In a brief statement, the BBC said it “fully cooperated with the authorities” during the raid, adding that it hoped to “resolve the situation as soon as possible”.
Although few details of the tax investigation have been released, media watchdogs and human rights groups have expressed concern that the raids are politically motivated. “Indian authorities have previously used tax investigations as an excuse to target critical news outlets and must stop harassing BBC staff immediately, in line with the values of liberty that should be upheld in the world’s largest democracy,” said Beh Lih Yi of the Protect Journalists Committee, it said in a statement.
In recent years, similar crackdowns have targeted journalists, think tanks and civil society organizations critical of the Indian government, in what human rights groups say is part of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s increasing crackdown on dissidents. Included are critics facing criminal charges under India’s opaque terrorism and sedition laws, as well as allegations of financial misconduct and improper foreign funding used to freeze bank accounts.
Who else was subject to tax raids?
Last year, the Income Tax Bureau alleged that three different organizations had violated the laws regarding foreign financing contributions. Tax officials searched the offices of Oxfam India, the Independent and Public-Spirited Media Foundation and the Center for Policy Research. “The coordinated crackdowns presented as ‘polls’ … are another stark example of how government financial and investigative agencies have been armed to harass, intimidate, silence and criminalize independent critical voices across the country,” Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s regional director for South Asia, said in a statement. “It is alarming how attacks by the authorities on freedom of expression and assembly in India are increasing unabated every day.”
Raids were also carried out against Delhi offices in September 2021 newspaper laundry And newsclick, popular Indian media outlets that often publish journalism critical of the government. In July, tax officials also searched 32 office and residential locations belonging to the Dainik Bhaskar Group, which publishes the country’s second most widely read Hindi language newspaper, and Bharat Samachar, a Hindi language television channel. The Hindi outlets claim the raids are in retaliation for the investigative reporting they conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What are the consequences of such raids?
During a raid, authorities can download all data from office computers, personal cell phones and laptops, as well as confiscate various financial documents and e-mails. According to The Wire, employees present in the office during the raid were not allowed to speak to anyone outside and the offices remained sealed during the official visit.
Following a raid on Amnesty International in September 2020, the organization’s bank accounts were frozen. As a result, it was forced to cease operations in India, suspend all of its campaign and research work, and lay off all its staff.
Amnesty said the move was in retaliation for a report it published in August 2020 on human rights abuses committed by Delhi police during religious unrest in February that year. Rajat Khosla, Amnesty’s senior director for research, advocacy and policy at the time, told the BBC: “We are facing a rather unprecedented situation in India. Amnesty International India faces attack, bullying and harassment by the government in a very systematic way.”
In 2021, more than 500 activists, lawyers and public intellectuals released a statement in response to the arrest of Harsh Mander, a prominent Indian human rights activist, condemning crackdowns as an intimidation tactic. Human rights groups also say the raids have shrunk the space for civil society organizations.
In a news conference on Tuesday, a BJP spokesman said that every organization has an obligation to “respect Indian law”. “If they’re obeying the law, why should they be scared or worried? Let the income department do its job,” he added.
What is India’s track record on free speech?
The Indian Constitution grants freedom of speech to all citizens. However, the annual Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit organization, ranks India 150th out of 180 nations in 2022.
A former journalist, Sharif Rangnekar, has attributed India’s poor record on press freedom to laws that “encourage self-censorship, particularly at a time of heightened nationalism”. In the Jammu and Kashmir region, for example, a government policy allowed authorities to decide what constituted “fake” or “anti-national” news, along with the power to take legal action against any publication or journalist they suspected of such activity.
The Editors Guild of India, a non-profit group that campaigns for press freedom, has said it is “deeply concerned” by Tuesday’s raid on the BBC. The Press Club of India and the Committee to Protect Journalists have also raised concerns.
The weekend is the New York Times published an editorial discussing the growing threat to India’s free press. “Since Mr Modi took office in 2014, journalists have increasingly risked their careers and lives to report what the government doesn’t want them to do,” she said.
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