Labour has condemned raids by Indian tax authorities on BBC workplaces in Mumbai and New Delhi as “deeply worrying”, as ministers say they’ve raised the difficulty with their Indian counterparts.

In the primary main intervention by a essential British social gathering following final week’s raids, Fabian Hamilton, Labour’s shadow overseas minister, criticised the Indian authorities and expressed concern that BBC workers had been held in a single day for questioning.

The raids adopted a BBC documentary essential of Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, which has precipitated an outcry from the Hindu nationalist authorities. But whereas journalists and free speech teams have criticised the tax raids as politically motivated, each Labour and the Conservatives had beforehand refused to make any overt criticism of New Delhi.

Hamilton informed the Commons on Tuesday, nevertheless: “In a democracy with true media freedoms, criticism cannot be shut down unnecessarily and freedom of expression must be protected at all costs.

“Last week’s raids on the BBC in India are therefore deeply worrying, regardless of the official narrative as to why they took place. The BBC is a globally respected broadcaster … It should be free to report and operate without intimidation.”

He added: “We are particularly worried about reports that suggest that BBC staff have been forced to stay in their offices overnight and have faced lengthy questioning.”

In response, David Rutley, the Foreign Office minister, confirmed for the primary time that British ministers had raised the difficulty with their Indian counterparts.

However he refused to subject any additional touch upon the raids, saying solely: “This issue has been raised and we continue to monitor the situation.” He added that consular assist had been provided to BBC workers in the event that they wished to take it up.

The feedback, which have been made throughout an pressing query within the Commons posed by Jim Shannon, the Democratic Unionist social gathering MP, mark the primary time any of the principle events have weighed into the controversy.

They got here as Indian ministers renewed their assaults on the BBC documentary. On Tuesday, India’s overseas minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, informed native media the documentary and the furore round it was “politics by another means”.

“Come on, you think timing is accidental?” he added. “Let me tell you one thing: I don’t know if the election season has started in India or not, but for sure it has started in London.”

In earlier feedback, the Modi authorities had condemned the documentary as “propaganda to push a discredited narrative” and accused the BBC of bias and a “colonial mindset”.

“India’s image cannot be disgraced by malicious campaigns launched inside or outside India,” stated the regulation minister, Kiren Rijiju.

The documentary, which was launched practically two months in the past, gave new particulars in regards to the function Modi performed as chief minister of Gujarat within the communal riots that ripped by way of his state in 2002 and left greater than 1,000 folks, largely Muslims, lifeless.

It revealed {that a} British authorities doc from the time had discovered Modi “directly responsible” for not stopping the killings of Muslims in the course of the riots, and stated the violence had “all the hallmarks of genocide”.

Since the discharge, the Indian authorities has invoked emergency legal guidelines to ban any clips or footage of the regulation being proven on social media. Students throughout the nation who tried to stage screenings of the documentary in defiance of the obvious censorship have been branded traitors and a few have been arrested.

Then every week in the past, about 50 officers from India’s revenue tax division descended on the BBC’s workplaces in New Delhi and Mumbai. According to their assertion, officers have been finishing up a “tax survey”, which continued for 3 days.

Phones and laptops have been cloned and not less than 10 members of workers have been stored for questioning in a single day. According to a statement launched after the raid was accomplished, the officers had uncovered “irregularities and discrepancies” within the BBC’s taxes.

The BBC has defended its documentary and stated it’s complying with the tax investigation. The broadcaster continues to be ready to listen to from the Indian authorities following the raid and continues to broadcast and produce on-line materials in Indian languages.

Additional reporting by Jim Waterson