Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray slammed the Income Tax department's survey operation at BBC offices, and asked how did this behove a democracy. Without naming the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Thackeray, who leads a faction of the Shiv Sena, said a brutal tendency is trying to rear its head in the country, and if “we do not come together then it will swallow up the whole country.
In what definition of democracy does raiding a media office fit in? This means you (the government) can do whatever you want, but we are not supposed to raise our voice. If voice is raised, the government will crush you, he said.
The IT department on Tuesday conducted a survey operation at the BBC's offices in Delhi and Mumbai as part of an investigation into alleged tax evasion, officials said. The action came weeks after the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary, India: The Modi Question.