New Delhi:

British Foreign Minister James Cleverly raised the tax searches on the BBC with Foreign Minister S Jaishankar throughout a bilateral assembly at present. Mr Jaishankar “firmly told” his UK counterpart that each one entities working in India should adjust to the legislation of the land.

“All entities operating in India must comply fully with relevant laws and regulations,” the UK Foreign Minister was informed, in keeping with sources.

Last month, the Income Tax division searched the BBC places of work in Delhi and Mumbai for 3 days over allegations of irregularities in tax funds. During the survey, senior employees needed to keep in a single day to reply to questions.

The searches got here weeks after the British public service broadcaster aired a documentary that was essential of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s management of Gujarat in the course of the 2002 sectarian riots.

After finishing the survey, the tax division claimed to have discovered “several evidences (sic)” indicating 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”.

The survey had thrown up discrepancies and inconsistencies on switch pricing documentation, the tax division alleged.

Days later, the British authorities strongly defended the BBC and its editorial freedom.

“We stand up for the BBC. We fund the BBC. We think the BBC World Service is vital. We want the BBC to have that editorial freedom,” mentioned David Rutley, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

“It criticises us (government), it criticises the (Opposition) Labour party, and it has that freedom that we believe is so important. That freedom is key, and we want to be able to communicate its importance to our friends across the world, including the government in India,” he mentioned.

The tax surveys had been extensively criticized by opposition events, who accused the federal government of retaliating towards the BBC for the unflattering documentary.

The BBC’s two-part sequence titled “India: The Modi Question”, examines allegations that PM Modi, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, did not do sufficient to cease the 2002 riots – allegations that had been dismissed by the Supreme Court.

Foreign Minister Jaishankar, in an interview final week, mentioned the timing of the BBC documentary is “not accidental” and denounced the narrative within the overseas media.

“There’s a phrase – war by other means. Think of it – this is politics by other means. Why is there suddenly a surge of reports, attention, and views? Will some of these things not happen again?” Dr Jaishankar mentioned, responding to a query.

“I mean, do you doubt it? Look who the cheerleaders are. What is happening is, just like I told you — this drip, drip, drip — how do you shape a very extremist image of India, of the government, of the BJP, of the Prime Minister. I mean, this has been going on for a decade, ” mentioned Dr Jaishankar.

The motive behind such tales overseas was to additional the anti-India agenda, he mentioned, difficult these behind the narrative to return to the political enviornment.