Indian tax officers searched the BBC’s workplaces in New Delhi and Mumbai for a second day on Wednesday, two sources stated, as controversy swirled over a BBC documentary crucial of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s position in lethal riots 20 years in the past.
The searches resumed Wednesday morning after they went on till late within the night time on Tuesday, a authorities supply and a supply within the BBC’s New Delhi workplace advised Reuters.
India’s Earnings Tax Division has declined to touch upon the rationale for the search. The sources declined to be recognized as a result of sensitivity of the matter.
The federal government final month blocked the documentary that focuses on Modi, a Hindu nationalist, throughout his time as chief minister of Gujarat state when Hindu-Muslim violence erupted in 2002.
A minimum of 1,000 individuals have been killed within the riots, most of them Muslims. Activists have put the toll at greater than twice that quantity.
The federal government says the documentary, ‘India: The Modi Question’, goals to push what it calls a discredited narrative, arguing that it’s “biased, lacked objectivity” and confirmed a “continuing colonial mindset”.
The BBC has stood by its reporting for the documentary. It stated on Tuesday it was cooperating with Indian tax officers, and hoped to have the scenario “resolved as soon as possible”.
Media organisations in India have slammed the search.
“We demand that this intimidation be stopped and journalists are left to do their jobs without fear or favour,” the Mumbai Press Membership stated in a press release.
