Following the deadly sectarian riots in Gujarat in 2002 – in which more than 1,000 people, overwhelmingly Muslims, were killed – Narendra Modi, then the state’s chief minister, was asked whether he would have done anything differently in retrospect: “The one area where I was very, very weak … was how to handle the media,” the now prime minister replied.
This week’s multi-day raid on BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai by tax authorities came just weeks after the government lambasted the corporation and blocked its documentary on his handling of the riots and treatment of the Muslim minority in India. The authorities say this is routine. But, as many in India have made clear, this looks more like retaliation than regular bureaucratic proceedings. A spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata party took the opportunity to describe the BBC as the “most corrupt organisation in the world”. It also follows a clear pattern of intimidatory “tax surveys” at domestic media companies that have displeased the government, and at other organisations, including Oxfam India.
