Modi’s authoritarian India targets the BBC

Why did the tax authorities raid the BBC offices in New Delhi?

In the India of nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there are no longer sanctuaries for independent media. Even the very powerful and respected British radio and television channel BBC learned this the hard way when it saw tax investigators arriving en masse on Tuesday, February 14, in its offices in New Delhi but also in Bombay, a stronghold of the country’s economy. The police confiscated the laptops of the employees present, according to a witness on the spot.

The raids come weeks after the airing of a documentary about the Prime Minister’s role in bloody sectarian riots in 2002. The Hindu nationalist leader is accused of ordering police to turn a blind eye when he was leading the State of Gujarat (West). The film, but also the tweets that referred to it, were censored by the government.

Sending the taxman is one of the weapons of power to punish the media who still dare to criticize the authorities in a period of generalized self-censorship. In 2021, the Dainik Bhaskar, the country’s most read daily, was raided in 32 cities after a resounding investigation into the presence of bodies of Covid-19 victims floating in the Ganges.

How is the Modi government reining in India’s mainstream media?

In India, defending freedom of the press has always been a difficult and dangerous fight against local authorities, politicians of all persuasions, crooked business leaders and other extremist religious groups.

But the situation has steadily worsened since the victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, a central figure in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the embodiment of the Hindu nationalist right. “Violence against journalists, media concentration, political alignment… Press freedom is in crisis in ‘the largest democracy in the world’”, worries Reporters Without Borders. According to the association’s 2022 ranking, in terms of freedom of expression of the media, the country has fallen from 142nd place to 150th place, out of 180. Just ahead of the dictatorial regimes of Tajikistan and Belarus. In India, ten journalists are currently behind bars.

Press groups that are still independent are harassed by the tax authorities, the police, the justice system, and any criticism can fall under the scope of sedition, liable to heavy penalties.

At the same time, we observe the growing control of the majority party, the BJP, on the securities of the subcontinent through billionaires close to Narendra Modi. The last major independent television station in the country, New Delhi Television (NDTV) has seen its journalists resign en masse since its acquisition by the multi-billionaire Gautam Adani, who enjoys the prime minister’s unfailing support.

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