The BBC‘s New Delhi and Mumbai offices were raided by Indian tax authorities today, weeks after the broadcaster aired a documentary on prime minister Narendra Modi’s actions during deadly sectarian riots in 2002.
The opposition Congress party condemned the raids, adding that there was an ‘undeclared emergency’ in the country – as rights activists say press freedom in India has suffered under Modi.
A spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused the BBC of engaging in ‘anti-India propaganda’ and said the raids were lawful and the timing had nothing to do with the government.
‘India is a country which gives an opportunity to every organisation,’ Gaurav Bhatia told reporters, ‘as long as you don’t spew venom.’
Police sealed off the BBC’s New Delhi office, which occupies two floors of a building on a leafy avenue in the capital’s commercial heart.
Police officers (centre) at the entrance of the building housing the BBC’s offices that were raided by Indian tax authorities in New Delhi
A police car is seen parked at the gate of a building that includes the BBC’s Mumbai office
Security guards close the gate of a building containing the BBC’s office in New Delhi today
Half a dozen officers were stationed outside to stop people from entering or leaving and a New Delhi-based BBC employee said officials had been ‘confiscating all phones’ during the raid.
An official at the scene declined to disclose their department, but said: ‘There is government procedure happening inside the office.’
Another BBC staffer based in Mumbai confirmed the broadcaster’s bureau in India’s commercial hub was also being raided.
India’s Income Tax Department could not be reached for comment by AFP but Mr Bhatia, of the BJP, said: ‘If you have been following the law of the country, if you have nothing to hide why be afraid of an action that is according to the law?’
Last month, the BBC aired a two-part documentary alleging Hindu nationalist Modi ordered police to turn a blind eye to sectarian riots in Gujarat state, where he was premier at the time.
The violence left at least 1,000 people dead, most of them minority Muslims.
A police officer (front second left) stands at the entrance of the office building where Indian tax authorities raided BBC’s office in New Delhi on February 14
A police officer and a private security guard ask journalists to leave from the gate of a building housing BBC office in New Delhi, India, on Tuesday
India’s government blocked videos and tweets sharing links to the documentary – which was not aired in India – using emergency powers under its information technology laws.
Government adviser Kanchan Gupta slammed the documentary as ‘hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage’.
University student groups later organised viewings of the film despite campus bans, defying government efforts to stop its spread.
Police arrested two dozen students at the prestigious Delhi University after stopping a screening there in late January.
‘First came the BBC documentary, that was banned,’ the Congress party said on Twitter. ‘Now IT has raided BBC,’ it continued, referring to the Income Tax Department. ‘Undeclared emergency.’
India has fallen ten spots to 150 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders, since Modi took office in 2014.
Critical reporters, particularly women, say they are subjected to relentless campaigns of online abuse.
Members of media and people stand outside a building having BBC offices, where income tax officials are conducting a search, in New Delhi, India, on February 14
Media outlets, international rights groups and foreign charities have also found themselves subjected to scrutiny by India’s tax authorities and financial crimes investigators.
Late Catholic nun Mother Teresa’s charity last year found itself temporarily starved of funds after the home ministry refused to renew its licence to receive foreign donations.
Amnesty International said it was halting operations in India after the government froze its bank accounts in 2020 following raids on its offices.
In 2021, Indian tax authorities raided a prominent newspaper and a TV channel that had been critical of the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, triggering accusations of intimidation.
The 2002 riots in Gujarat began after 59 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a fire on a train. Thirty-one Muslims were convicted of criminal conspiracy and murder over that incident.
The BBC documentary cited a previously classified British foreign ministry report quoting unnamed sources saying Modi met senior police officers and ‘ordered them not to intervene’ in the anti-Muslim violence by Right-wing Hindu groups that followed.
The violence was politically motivated and the aim ‘was to purge Muslims from Hindu areas’, the foreign ministry report said.
The ‘systematic campaign of violence has all the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing’ and was impossible ‘without the climate of impunity created by the state Government… Narendra Modi is directly responsible’, it concluded.
Modi, who ran Gujarat from 2001 until his election as prime minister in 2014, was briefly subject to a travel ban by the United States over the violence.
A special investigative team appointed by India’s Supreme Court to probe the roles of Modi and others in the violence said in 2012 it did not find any evidence to prosecute him.
