New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday came out in support of the BBC saying that the recent income tax surveys on the British media outlet’s India offices had ruined the image of the country. “What happened yesterday at the premises of BBC in India comes as a shock to all of us because it ruins the image of India in the world. The Prime Minister celebrates little-known awards like the Philip Kotler award. He craves for an endorsement from foreign countries but if a foreign media house exposes his past, he first bans the documentary, then sends the central agencies and calls the documentary a conspiracy against him hatched abroad,” Congress media head Pawan Khera said.
“There have been prime ministers before him and there will be prime ministers after him. If the BBC documentary was a conspiracy, were similar IT surveys against Indian media outlets like the Newsclick, The Wire, The News Minute, Newslaundry, Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar and NDTV also part of a conspiracy,” he asked.
According to the Congress leader, the Indian income tax laws did not apply to the BBC. “The government does not know the revenue model of the BBC. It is not dependent on a profit-loss revenue model. The subscribers of BBC deposit a license fee at a post office which gives money to the media company to manage its day-to-day affairs. The income tax department of India has no role in this matter,” said Khera.
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The IT surveys at the BBC India offices had impacted the image of the country before the world, the Congress leader noted. “We have got rotating chairmanship of the G20. We are being called the mother of democracy. What is the kind of image you are making by sending IT teams to the BBC India offices? India’s ranking in the international press freedom index dropped from 142 in 2021 to 150 in 2022. After the IT surveys at the BBC do you think our ranking would improve. We are worried about the image of India. We are not a banana republic. People are laughing at us,” said Khera.
As he batted for BBC India, the Congress leader denied the charge that a previous government had banned the British media outlet. “During a declared emergency, there was a format to be filled by the BBC. They refused to fill it up and left. Then they came back. There was no ban. This is not a declared emergency. No format has been prescribed on what to publish. Why don’t they declare an emergency,” the media head quipped.
“The government can file a defamation suit if it has a problem with some content. How would you feel if our governments in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Himachal Pradesh misuse their power? The BBC published stories against the British government but they did not raid the media house,” he added.
The Congress leader backed the statement of the Editors Guild of India which had condemned the IT surveys on BBC India on Tuesday. “We support the EGI statement. We welcome start-up India but we will not allow shut-up India. The PM used to say before 2014 that he only trusted the BBC but sent the central agencies after the BBC showed a documentary about his past,” he said.
