Indian tax officials raided BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai, seizing documents and phones from employees. Tuesday's
searches took place weeks after the Indian government took action to
censor the promotion of a recently-released BBC documentary detailing
the role of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in deadly riots in his
home state of Gujarat in 2002.
- The Indian government banned the documentary from being shown in India and pressured U.S. social media companies to take clips down.
- Delhi police detained students who had gathered to watch the documentary last month.
- The
Editors Guild of India, a press freedom group, described the raids as a
"continuation of a trend of using government agencies to intimidate and
harass press organizations that are critical of government policies."
- A
spokesperson for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the
BBC is the "most corrupt organization in the world" and claimed that the
searches have nothing to do with the documentary.
- Modi was the governor of Gujarat during riots that saw sectarian violence between Indian Hindus and Muslims, culminating in the death of over 1,000 people.
- Critics
have alleged that Modi permitted the anti-Muslim violence, and a report
published by the British Foreign Office claimed that he was "directly
responsible" for the "climate of impunity" that preceded the riots.
