India | BBC targeted by tax authorities after critical Modi documentary

The BBC, which had aroused the ire of the Indian government by broadcasting a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi a month ago, underwent searches on Tuesday by the tax authorities in its offices in New Delhi and Bombay.

The intervention, officially justified by suspicions of tax evasion, was quickly denounced by several organizations for the defense of freedom of the press as an attempt at intimidation aimed at silencing the British public channel.

Local media reported that searches continued into the evening and that employees were forced to hand over phones and computers to government officials.

The BBC confined itself to saying that its staff were actively collaborating with the authorities and hoped to arrive “as soon as possible at a resolution of the situation”.

Gaurav Bathia, a spokesman for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the prime minister’s party, stressed on Tuesday that the BBC had nothing to worry about “if it obeyed the law” and should let tax officials carry out their term work.

Reflecting the government’s exasperation, he returned to the charge against the journalistic production of the chain, pointing out that it was “venomous” and “superficial”.

“Crude affront to freedom of expression”

Contrary to the BJP, the Indian section of Amnesty International denounced the raids as a “gross affront to freedom of expression” aimed at harassing the BBC.

The Publishers Guild of India said it was “deeply concerned” by the situation, seeing it as yet another illustration of the BJP’s propensity to use “government agencies” to target media critical of its policies and leaders.

The organization noted that at least four Indian media outlets had come under similar scrutiny over the past two years, usually soon after they aired material critical of the regime.

A documentary targeting the Prime Minister

The BBC sparked a strong reaction from New Delhi a month ago when it aired a two-part documentary that notably looked at Narendra Modi’s role in 2002 inter-communal violence in Gujarat state when he was governor.

The documentary notably evoked the conclusions of an unpublished report by the British government stressing that Mr. Modi had a “direct” responsibility in the climate of impunity which allowed riots which left a thousand dead, most of them Muslims.

The rioters were reacting to the attack by Muslim militants on a train loaded with Hindu pilgrims which caught fire, killing dozens.

The Indian government has spoken of emergency measures to block the circulation on social networks of extracts from the documentary, a ban currently being challenged in court.

Another spokesman, Arindam Bagchi, then argued that the BBC production reflected a “colonialist” view of India and sought to embarrass the prime minister when the country’s Supreme Court has already cleared him of any criminal responsibility for the killings.

A precedent against the foreign press

Meenakshi Ganguly, an analyst with Human Rights Watch (HRW) based in India, said Tuesday by email that the Indian Prime Minister seeks to project himself abroad as a “democratic leader convinced of the importance of human rights”. , an image incompatible with the content of the documentary.

As well as re-questioning Mr Modi’s role in the 2002 riots, the BBC explores the policies put in place since 2019 under his watch to marginalize the country’s minorities and further the Hindu nationalist agenda of his left.

It is more and more frequent, note M^me Ganguly, whether local media and their reporters are targeted with criminal charges or tax audits. The practice, she says, has melted the number of critical media outlets and is fostering the rise of self-censorship practices that are alarming to the country’s democratic life.

International media are better protected, but can still come under pressure when it comes to renewing journalists’ visas, said the HRW representative, who sees the searches against the BBC as a worrying precedent against the foreign press.

Salil Tripathi, a writer attached to PEN America, notes that no member of the Indian government would want to formally link the tax action against the BBC to the documentary even though the idea of ​​a coincidence seems “remarkable” to say the least.

By launching legal attacks against journalists or organizations critical of it, the government casts doubt on their integrity, he underlines.

“The ultimate goal is to please their angry supporters at the BBC by giving the impression that the government is doing something, even if it means appearing vindictive and even damaging bilateral relations with Britain,” concludes Mr Tripathi.