BBC offices in India have been raided by tax authorities. The raids come a few weeks after the BBC aired a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and have been seen by some as a retaliation.
The government has been ordering online platforms to block the video.
The two-part documentary, “India: The Modi Question,” focuses on the anti-Muslim violence in the Gujarat riots of 2002 when Modi was chief minister. Broadcast only in the UK, the Indian government has made efforts to prevent it from being watched in India, calling it “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage.”
Last month, students who had gathered to watch the documentary were arrested.
The 2002 riots in Gujarat started one day after a train carrying Hindu pilgrims was burned, killing dozens. The resulting violence resulted in the deaths of over one thousand people, mostly Muslim.
The BBC documentary accuses Modi of being “directly responsible” for creating the “climate of impunity” that allowed the violence.
Modi has long denied wrongdoing. In 2013, the Supreme Court found that there was not enough evidence against him.
Spokesperson of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Gaurav Bhatia said that the BBC is the “most corrupt organization in the world,” adding that India “gives an opportunity to every organization, as long as you do not spew venom.”
He insisted that the searches were legal and the timing did not have anything to do with the government.
