Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday threw her weight firmly behind the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in the wake of Tuesday’s income tax “survey” in the UK’s national broadcaster’s offices in Delhi and Mumbai, attacking the BJPled Centre for its “politics of vendetta”.
The Bengal chief minister extolled the BBC and expressed dismay at officials of the income tax department for showing up at the BBC offices for a “survey” weeks after it screened a documentary critical of Prime Minister Modi.
“I feel that the BBC is the most reputed organisation. The BBC always gives us fast information, the latest information, detailed information. Why have they chosen the BBC?” asked Mamata in her chamber at the Assembly after the state budget was presented.
The I-T “survey” was condemned as a sign of “undeclared Emergency” by the national Opposition that contrasted it with the government’s refusal to investigate the Adani group whose shares fell following allegations in the Hindenburg report of accounting fraud and stock manipulation.
“This is very unfortunate. And this is (an act of) political vendetta. The BJP is running the government (with) this vendetta only,” she added.
The BJP on Tuesday termed the BBC the “world’s most corrupt” organisation and accused it of unleashing a “venomous attack against India” through its reporting.
Reacting to the survey, Mamata added: “If there is anything illegal, they should have sent a letter, talked to them, they should have taken a decision on how it could be sorted out.... Because the BBC is doing something against this government, just like that, the next day they started their operation like this. This is not desirable.”
“It is not only affecting the freedom of the press… there will be no (unbiased) media (left) in this country. The media is already controlled by them (the saffron camp),” the Trinamul supremo added. “I am sorry to say, the media cannot raise their voice. If they do, their management will just cut their service within 24 hours. This is their (the BJP’s) controlling power.”
The “survey” came against the backdrop of a two-part BBC documentary on Modi’s tenure as chief minister of Gujarat during the 2002 riots and then as Prime Minister.
The Modi government barred the broadcast of the documentary, terming it “a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative”. Ironically, before becoming Prime Minister, Modi had praised the BBC, calling it more credible than Indian broadcasters Doordarshan and Aakashvani.
Asked if she was linking the “survey” with the documentary, Mamata said: “Speech is silver, silence is better. (From) whatever I am speaking, you can guess. They cannot hide their double face.”
In response to a question on whether this was tarnishing the image of India globally, Mamata said: “I love my motherland…. Why they are doing it, I don’t know, I don’t understand.”
Last week the Supreme Court dismissed as “completely misconceived” and “absolutely meritless” a petition by the Hindu Sena seeking a ban on the BBC in India and an NIA probe into the British broadcaster’s alleged anti-India activities. Last Friday, the apex court directed the Centre to produce original records onto its decision to block the BBC documentary.
“Sometimes they (the BJP)have said against the judiciary also. They want to capture the judiciary too. But we want the judiciary to be neutral and unafraid. Only the judiciary can save this country right now,” she said.
She reminded the BJP-ledCentre of its constitutional obligations.
“(They) think ‘we are in power, that’s why whatever I can do, that I have to do’…(they) cannot do it. I too have some limitations. I abide by the Constitution, by the mandate of the people,” she said.
“They don’t care about the people’s mandate. Their only mandate is dictatorship. More than (Adolf) Hitler, more than(Nicolae) Ceausescu….,” she added. “My sympathy and my support, fully with the media,and with the BBC.”