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, coinciding the scathing attack with the income tax department’s “survey” at the Delhi and Mumbai offices of the British public broadcaster.

“BBC pure biswa ki sabse bhrast, bakwas corporation ho gayi hai (The BBC has become the world’s most corrupt and rubbish corporation),” BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia said at a media address at the BJP headquarters.

The political attack came soon after the income tax department reached BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai. The twin “surveys” came against the backdrop of a two-part BBC documentary on Narendra Modi that is based on his tenure as chief minister of Gujarat during the 2002 communal riots and then his stint as Prime Minister.

The Modi government had barred the broadcast of the documentary, terming it “a propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative”.

Bhatia, the BJP spokesperson, sought to paint the BBC as an anti-India organisation, claiming that it had a “tainted and black history of working with malice against India”.

He referred to past reports by the broadcaster while trying to buttress his charge. He claimed that a report had described a terrorist in Kashmir as a “charismatic young militant”, termed Holi a “filthy festival” and denigrated Mahatma Gandhi by saying he had “failed in his attempt to liberate India in 1946”.

“This shows that the BBC does venomous and shallow reporting in India. It wishes to operate in India yet refuses to respect the icons of the country,” Bhatia said.

Ironically, before he became Prime Minister, Modi had praised the BBC, saying that it was more credible than Indian broadcasters Doordarshan and Akashvani.

After castigating the BBC, BJP leader Bhatia launched into the Congress for attacking the government over the IT “surveys” at the broadcaster’s offices, saying the Opposition party always sided with those against the country.

“Congress ka haath, desh virodhiyon ke saath (The Congress is with the anti-national forces),” he said.

“BBC propaganda and Congress agenda go together,” Bhatia added, obliquely accusing the Congress of conspiring with anti-national forces at a time when India was “surging ahead under the leadership of Modi”.

Bhatia even invoked Indira Gandhi to target the Congress, saying the former Prime Minister had banned the BBC.

Bhatia said former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had called the BBC the “Bolshevik Broadcasting Corporation”.

The BJP leader alleged that the BBC’s “whims and fancies... can’t be tolerated”.

“India is a country which gives an opportunity to every organisation as long as you’re willing to abide by the Constitution of our country. As long as you don’t have a hidden agenda and as long as you don’t spew venom…,” Bhatia said.

“It can’t be the whims and fancies of a corporation. And this can’t be tolerated”