Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 14: The BBC said on Tuesday that it is completely cooperating with the Income Tax authorities who are at its offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and expressed the hope that the issue will be handled as soon as feasible.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, a public broadcaster with its headquarters in the UK, declined to provide more information about what the I-T department has referred to as ‘surveys,’ which reportedly involved preventing local BBC staff from entering the office premises and turning off their mobile phones.
“The Income Tax Authorities are currently at the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai and we are fully cooperating,” a BBC spokesperson said.
“We hope to have this situation resolved as soon as possible,” he added.
Following the broadcast of the divisive ‘India: The Modi Question’ documentary, which focused on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure as Gujarat’s chief minister in 2022 when riots broke out, the Income Tax (IT) action was initiated.
The two-part documentary was dubbed a ‘propaganda piece’ by the Indian government because it promoted a certain ‘discredited storyline.’
“The bias, lack of objectivity and continuing colonial mindset is blatantly visible,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said at the time it was aired in the UK last month.
