Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday took a jibe at Income Tax “survey” at the BBC office in New Delhi and Mumbai, calling for similar action against “Mr A”, an obvious reference to beleaguered billionaire Gautam Adani whose business fortunes took a sharp plunge after a scathing report by US short seller Hindenburg Research.
“Since agencies doing these Valentine Day “Surveys” how about Income Tax department, SEBI & Enforcement Directorate conduct one on govt’s most valued sweetheart Mr. A?” Mahua Moitra said in a tweet.
Teams from the IT department were at the BBC office in New Delhi on Tuesday in what officials from the department described as a “survey”, less than a month after the BBC released a two-part documentary, India: The Modi Question, which looked at the 2002 Gujarat riots.
A Central Board of Direct Taxes official confirmed to HT that officials were at the BBC office in New Delhi. “It is a survey and not a raid,” he said.
A second official said that the department was investigating “certain matters related to BBC based on definite inputs of some irregularities”.
Officials reached the office a little before noon on Tuesday, with assistance of the seventh battalion of the Delhi Police.
While the officials did not draw any link between the documentary and the survey, BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said the BBC should not “spew venom” while operating in India.
“The BBC indulges in anti-India propaganda,” Gaurav Bhatia told reporters. “India is a country which gives an opportunity to every organisation… as long as you don’t spew venom.”
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh used a Hindi idiom to attack the government, saying “Vinash Kale, Vipreet Buddhi” (When doom approaches, a person’s intellect works against his interest).
“Here we are demanding JPC on the Adani issue but the government is after the BBC. Vinash Kale Viprit Buddhi,” Ramesh said.
