Indian tax officers searched the BBC’s bureaus in New Delhi and Mumbai for a second day on Wednesday, as controversy swirled over a BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in deadly riots two decades ago.
The general secretary of the opposition Congress party, KC Venugopal, said Tuesday’s 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,” he tweeted.
But Gaurav Bhatia, a spokesman from Mr Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), described the BBC as the “most corrupt organisation in the world”.
The Editors Guild of India – a non-profit group which promotes press freedom – said it was “deeply concerned” about the searches.
They are a “continuation of a trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass press organisations that are critical of government policies or the ruling establishment”, it said.
Amnesty International India’s Board accused authorities of “trying to harass and intimidate the BBC over its critical coverage of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party”.
It said the “overbroad powers of the Income Tax Department are repeatedly being weaponised to silence dissent”.
Weeks earlier the government banned the documentary that focused on the Hindu nationalist leader during his time as chief minister of Gujarat when Hindu-Muslim violence erupted in 2002.
According to the documentary at least 1,000 people were killed in the riots, most of them Muslims, though activists put the toll at more than twice that number.
The government last month dismissed the documentary, “India: The Modi Question”, and blocked its streaming and sharing on social media.
The foreign ministry said the British broadcaster’s documentary was meant to push a “discredited narrative”, was biased, lacked objectivity and showed a “continuing colonial mindset”.
The BBC has stood by its reporting for the documentary and said on Tuesday it was cooperating with Indian tax officials, and hoped to have the situation “resolved as soon as possible”.
The tax officers had remained at the Delhi bureau late on Tuesday, the BBC said, and some staff had been asked to stay there while many others had left.
