New Delhi: Several English-language Indian newspapers have brought out editorials over the last two days on the Income Tax Departments ongoing ‘surveys’ at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai. These editorials have questioned and criticised the timing of this action – which came soon after BBC released a documentary critical of Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Of the big national English newspapers, the Times of India and the Hindustan Times have so far not released editorials on the issue.
‘First step in what is widely seen as a process-is-punishment treatment’
The Indian Express started off its editorial by highlighting the timing, saying this survey appears to be “the first step in what is widely seen as a process-is-punishment treatment”.
“Of course, the BBC has to answer to the law and has to address whatever questions the tax authorities have. But the parallel commentary by one of the ruling party’s national spokespersons trashing the news organisation as “corrupt” and “rubbish” and accusing it of supporting “anti-national” forces raises more than one question mark on due process. …Given the recent record of the government vis a vis sections of the media and civil society, the latest action against the BBC — the survey, taken together with the political attack — smacks of bullying and an attempt to intimidate,” the newspaper continues.
While many have suggested that the action points to the government’s insecurity, the Indian Express disagrees:
“Surely, Income Tax personnel being sent to a news organisation in the middle of the day is meant to send a message to that organisation and, arguably, it is the message to others, too. It would be simplistic — and inaccurate — to dismiss this as the knee-jerk response of an insecure government. For, this is a government not exactly insecure and it rarely jerks its knee. Herein lies the rub. Asked about such action, the BJP has a stock answer: why worry about a survey or a search if you have nothing to fear? That question is loaded at a time when the IPC is being weaponised at the drop of a police complaint or an FIR, be it the case of a stand-up comic or a professor’s cartoon. The BJP knows that sending tax officers and inspectors to newsrooms and think tanks is borrowing a leaf from a discredited playbook once used by a regime they had so stridently opposed. Surely, they also know that it has its limitations.”
‘Indian diplomacy should prepare itself for some turbulence’
The has outlined how the Narendra Modi government has made a habit of going after any media house or reportage that it finds inconvenient. The difference this time, though, is that the government has gone after no less than the UK’s public broadcaster: “Trampling the domestic media may not cause the government to suffer immediate challenges. But having targeted the BBC, Indian diplomacy should prepare itself for some turbulence. Already, the United States of America has sent out a terse reminder of the importance of free speech as well as religious freedom in democracies, including India. It remains to be seen whether the episode leaves a mark on New Delhi’s ties with London.”
“India’s gargantuan market and its leverage with Russia, New Delhi appears to be confident, would serve as adequate insurance against deleterious consequences from a critical West. But international realities are slippery and India would do well to remember that its existing robust networks with the West are the result of decades of hard work and are, more importantly, mutually beneficial. What is of particular interest — concern — is this government’s willingness to create the myth of a Western conspiracy against India. Is this a manifestation of the regime’s ideological antagonism towards such principles as freedom and free speech that are believed to be central to the template of Western liberal democracy?” it continues.
‘Attempt to produce a chilling effect’
“It is difficult not to see the Income Tax (I-T) department’s two-day survey of the BBC’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai as an attempt to produce a chilling effect on Britain’s well regarded public broadcaster and also media institutions willing to hold the current regime to account for past actions,” The Hindu‘s editorial begins. This newspaper also highlighted how this kind of action had now become the norm for anyone critical of the government.
“Even if media organisations raise uncomfortable questions, the response has to be factual, reasonable and measured. The reaction to the BBC’s documentary has been anything but that. In trying to block access to the documentary, the government came across as ham-fisted and now, with this survey at the BBC offices, it comes across as intimidating. This does not augur well for India’s global image, but worse, it is a clear threat to existing freedoms of the country’s citizens,” it adds.
‘At stake here are the country’s democratic credentials’
The Tribune‘s editorial said that if India wants to preserve its global democratic credentials, the I-T department must release any actual evidence it finds of wrongdoing. Otherwise, the suggestions that this is merely retaliatory action from a disturbed government will gain credence.
“The misuse of Central agencies to punish dissenters or detractors is not uncommon in present-day India. At stake here are the country’s democratic credentials, which will take a huge hit if the I-T department is unable to establish a convincing case against the BBC. It’s no secret that the British broadcaster has often taken a jaundiced view of post-colonial happenings in the subcontinent; the charges of financial irregularities, if proved, will have a bearing on its credibility and transparency. The developments are significant for Indian media houses too. The I-T survey, in case it is retaliatory, will be construed as a warning to them: remain pliant or face the consequences. The prospect of being targeted by one agency or the other for taking an anti-establishment line has grave implications for journalistic freedom in the country,” it says.
‘Counter-productive in too many ways’
Deccan Chronicle, in its editorial, has called the I-T survey on BBC “the worst message the largest democracy on earth can pass on to the rest of the world”.
“The latest action is counter-productive in too many ways. India will have little defence if and when challenged on international forums regarding its attempts at muzzling press freedom, especially while it is president of the G-20,” the newspaper says. “It will undoubtedly mar India’s image as a liberal democracy which is supposed to respect the plurality of opinions. It also places the documentary, which the government has already decried as a “propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative”, in the spotlight. The government, meanwhile, must face the criticism of subjecting the media at home, too, to the same highhandedness.”