Hyderabad: CPI State secretary Kunamneni Sambasiva Rao condemned the IT raids on the BBC offices in the country.
Sambasiva Rao said the action was an attempt to intimidate the broadcaster after it aired a documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat. He said it had become a habit of the BJP government to attack opposition parties and media whenever it comes under criticism.
“Anyone questioning Prime Minister Modi about his past is raided by central agencies. Prime Minister Modi is sending a wrong message to the world,” he said, adding that the Indian media was repeatedly muzzled and bulldozed by the Modi government, just because some of them have refused to toe the line of the BJP and now it has started targeting foreign media.
India has a reputation of having a healthy democracy and if the Modi government continues to target foreign media, the country would lose its image, he said.