Action against BBC sending wrong message globally: Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar, Feb 15 (PTI) PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday said there was “nothing new” in the Income Tax department’s survey operations at BBC offices as the BJP-led government had allegedly adopted similar measures against journalists in Kashmir.

However, Mehbooba said the action against the BBC India was sending a wrong message internationally and damaging India’s image as a democracy.

“There is nothing new. Especially in Jammu and Kashmir, we have been seeing for the past three years how journalists are treated. Fahad Shah and Sajad Gul have been jailed. Unfortunately, the national and international community stayed silent when it was happening here and now it is happening there as well,” she told reporters here.

“Today BBC, which is considered very credible around the world, has been raided after the documentary on Gujarat riots was released. This has damaged the image of India at international level, they are defaming the country. It also exposes the BJP’s Vishwaguru claims. We are known as the mother of all democracies but this does not augur well,” she added.

Asked about the G20 meeting being held in Jammu and Kashmir, the PDP president said while the ruling party at the Centre would not tire of claiming to be the Vishwaguru, the ‘raids’ on the BBC were sending out a “bad” message.

“On one side you are talking about G20 and Vishwaguru, on the other you are ‘raiding’ credible agencies like the BBC and demolishing houses of the poor. The message going out is very bad and gives an impression that India is regressing,” she said.

The former chief minister alleged that opposition voices — be it journalists or politicians — are being suppressed.

“These are acts of ‘hooliganism’ and this started from J-K,” she added.

The Income Tax department survey operation against the BBC India continued for the second day with the sleuths understood to be making copies of electronic and paper-based financial data of the organisation, officials said Wednesday.

The tax department had launched the action on Tuesday at the BBC’s Delhi and Mumbai offices along with at least two linked premises as part of an investigation into alleged tax evasion against the British broadcaster in India.