Orwellian state being created where freedom of press is clamped down: Cong

The Congress on Thursday slammed the Centre after the Enforcement Directorate registered a case against news broadcaster BBC India, alleging that the government is determined to impose a "dictatorial government" where there is "tyranny of the executive."

The ED has registered a FEMA case against BBC India with allegations of foreign exchange violations, official sources said Thursday, two months after the Income-Tax department surveyed its office premises.

A deputy managing editor of the news company has deposed before the agency.

The ED has called for documents and the recording of statements of some company executives under provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the officials said. The probe is essentially looking at purported foreign direct investment (FDI) violations by the company, they said.

 

Asked about the development at a press conference at AICC headquarters, Congress spokesperson Anshul Avijit said, "We know the atmosphere that is being created by the Orwellian sort of state here where the freedom of expression and press has completely been clamped down."

"It is not new, it has been happening, there are changes in laws but far from that there are threats and intimidation so whoever dares criticise this government is actually thrown in jail," Avijit said.

He also spoke about the incident where students of Delhi University were suspended for showing a recent BBC documentary on 2002 Gujarat riots.

"This is the kind of state we live in. I really fear the freedom of the press as well. The new IT laws that have come out, they have come under much criticism but nothing deters this government.

"They are determined to impose a dictatorial government in which the executive rules, so you have the tyranny of the executive," the Congress leader said.

On February 14 this year, the I-T department conducted survey operations at the London-headquartered broadcaster's offices in Delhi and Mumbai as part of an investigation into alleged tax evasion. The survey went on for three days.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the administrative body for the I-T department, had then said the income and profits shown by various BBC group entities were "not commensurate" with the scale of their operations in India and they failed to pay on certain remittances by its foreign entities.

The BBC, after the tax survey, had said they will "continue to cooperate with the authorities and hope matters are resolved as soon as possible."

The action had led to a sharp political debate with the ruling BJP accusing the BBC of "venomous reporting" while the Opposition questioned the timing -- weeks after the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary 'India: The Modi Question.