Hours after the Income Tax Department surveyed the premises of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Delhi and Mumbai, opposition leaders united to condemn the Centre. Congress leader Manish Tewari called the survey imbecile and childish. Tewari further questioned whether we are telling the world that we are an insecure power. The Congress MP tweeted, “This raid/survey is so imbecile, childish, and beyond even silly. As hosts of G-20, what are we telling the world that rather than an emerging great power we are an insecure power? Whichever bright spark thought this one up is PM’s worst enemy.”
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj condemned the Centre and said the Modi government is attempting to silence the BBC’s voice by harassing anyone who refuses to fall in line. Bharadwaj tweeted, “Modi government is attempting to silence the BBC’s voice through its well-known and so predictable move of harassing anyone who refuses to fall in line. Modi ji your Adani scam will not get diverted through such condemnable actions.” Congress has reacted to searches at the BBC office and has called it an “undeclared emergency."In a tweet, it wrote “First came the BBC documentary, it was banned. Now IT has raided BBC. undeclared emergency." The searches also comes weeks after Centre blocked the sharing of clips of a BBC documentary that questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership during deadly riots in 2002 in the western state of Gujarat.