IT searches at BBC offices spark a political slugfest

New Delhi: The Income Tax Department on Tuesday conducted searches at the offices of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in New Delhi and Mumbai offices.
As part of a survey, the Income Tax Department only covers the business premises of a company and does not raid residences and other locations of its promoters or directors. The department is looking at documents related to the business operations of the London headquartered public broadcaster and its Indian arm, they said. The investigation is linked to international taxation issues of BBC subsidiary companies, sources indicated. The synchronized surprise action began at 11 am with I-T officials reaching the BBC offices in Delhi and in Mumbai. Police sealed off the New Delhi office, which occupies two floors, and half a dozen officers were stationed outside to prevent people from entering or leaving.
As news spread, onlookers and media crews were seen outside the BBC office at central Delhi’s Kasturba Gandhi Marg. In Mumbai, the office is in Santa Cruz.According to reports, the employees of the broadcasting corporation were asked not to use their computer systems and phones, including their ones. Reports quoting sources said the employees working in the afternoon shift at the BBC’s Delhi office were asked to work from home, while those present in the office were asked to leave early. A BBC employee based in New Delhi told AFP that the tax raid was in progress and that officials were “confiscating all phones.” Another BBC staffer based in Mumbai confirmed the broadcaster’s office in India’s commercial hub was also being raided.
An official at the scene said: “There is government procedure happening inside the office,” declining to disclose their department. Meanwhile, the Income Tax Department could not be reached for comment by AFP.On expected lines, the Opposition parties reacted. The Congress party’s senior leader Jairam Ramesh has described the government’s action against the BBC as ‘Visase Kaale Vipareetha Budhe” and slammed the ruling BJP at the Centre for being shaken with the broadcaster’s recent documentary on the Gujarat riots. “While we are demanding for JPC or Court monitored probe, the government chose to raid BBC,’ He alleged.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) too has slammed the Centre over the Income Tax survey operation at the BBC’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached the “heights of dictatorship”. But, the BJP unwilling to take the Cong and other Opposition parties baseless allegations and wanted the IT to do its job. The BJP spokesperson had also described the BBC as “Brastachar Bakwas Corporation.. He denied any link of the IT raids with the so-called documentary which is nothing short of a ‘pack of lies’ in the wake of the Supreme Court exonerating the PM in all cases. Last month, the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary alleging that 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.India’s government blocked videos and tweets sharing links to the documentary, using emergency powers under its information technology laws. Government adviser Kanchan Gupta had slammed the documentary as “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”