Two months after the Income Tax sleuths held survey operations at British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Indian offices, the Modi regime has now launched a new strike against the broadcaster as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a case against BBC India under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) for committing violations in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). 

On Thursday - April 13, ED has launched its investigation and it has called for documents and statements of some executives of BBC India under provisions of the FEMA. The development has drawn sharp attention and the BBC has officially responded to the latest crackdown from the Indian government. A spokesperson for BBC told PTI that the UK-based broadcaster would comply with its obligations for operating in India. 

"We will continue to cooperate fully with the Indian authorities to ensure that we comply with all our obligations", the spokesperson said. According to Reuters, the ED had issued a notice to BBC in March and had already questioned some employees earlier this month. These crackdowns on BBC have sparked a public outcry against the BJP regime as they have come after the release of BBC's documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi that accused him of being hugely divisive. 

The unprecedented developments against the BBC have driven an impact in the India-UK diplomatic relations. During his visit to New Delhi earlier this March, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has raised the issue of IT searches at BBC's offices during a talk with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar. 

During the second week of February, the Income Tax department had conducted searches at the BBC's New Delhi and Mumbai offices for three straight days and defending the searches, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said that it had found discrepancies and that the income and profits disclosed by the organisation's units were not commensurate with the scale of operations in India. 

The Income Tax further said that it has uncovered irregularities in BBC's accounting books. In its statement, the IT department said, "The findings indicate that tax has not been paid on certain remittances which have not been disclosed as income in India by the foreign entities of the group." 

BBC was a centre of controversy when it released a documentary titled 'India: The Modi Question' in which it delved into Modi's divisive political tenure from Gujarat's Chief Minister to becoming the Prime Minister. The two-part documentary has shown how a pogrom under Modi's watch in Gujarat had killed thousands of Muslims in 2002 Gujarat riots.

The documentary has also displayed Modi's tenure as the Prime Minister and how his Hindutva propaganda is changing India's democratic landscape. The documentary said, "Under Narendra Modi, India has been transformed. He remains enormously popular and hugely divisive." The documentary has troubled the BJP government and the latter went on to invoke its special power to ban the documentary. 

However, the national and regional opposition parties and several universities had broadcasted the documentary in large screens. The BJP regime had also met with protests for curbing the documentary and weeks after the release of the documentary, the BBC's offices in Delhi and Mumbai were searched by the Income Tax officials and two months after the search, ED has now opened a new investigation against the British broadcaster.