London, February 22, 2023 (PPI-OT):The UK government has defended BBC when questioned in the House of Commons about the Income Tax department’s raids on the national broadcaster’s India offices after the release of a documentary holding Narendra Modi directly responsible for the 2002 Gujrat Muslim massacre. Tory MP David Rutley, who is the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), answered questions on the issue from members of the opposition as well as his own party for about 20 minutes.
“We stand up for the BBC, we fund the BBC, we think the BBC World Service is vitally important,” Rutley said. He added that it was important for the national broadcaster to have editorial freedom. “It has that freedom which we believe is vitally important and that freedom is key. We want to be able to communicate the importance of that with our colleagues…our friends across the world including the government of India,” he said. Several MPs questioned the UK government on the incident in India. “Let’s be very clear: this was a deliberate act of intimidation following the release of an unflattering documentary about the country’s leader,” said Jim Shannon, of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).
Conservative MP Julian Lewis characterised the action taken by Modi-led Indian government as extremely worrying. “The SNP [Scottish National Party] absolutely condemns this alarming attack on the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai, “MP Drew Hendry said. Labour MP Fabian Hamilton said the surveys were deeply worrying, asking what steps were being taken to protect the BBC from intimidation. “On this side of the House, we’re particularly worried about reports that suggest the BBC staff had been forced to stay in their offices overnight and have faced lengthy questioning,” he said.
Liberal Democrat MP Jamie Stone asked during the discussion if the UK would consider joining forces with the US and other democracies to put pressure on India and call out this completely unacceptable behaviour. BBC had recently released a documentary that has taken a critical look at the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the deadly 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim riots. The Indian government had blocked the documentary on Twitter and YouTube. The timing of the Income Tax department raids, soon after, have thus been criticised as an attempt to diminish press freedom.
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