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BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

theguardian.com

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Re: BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

#81

Post by mihaaly »

azalemeth wrote: post #13

Honestly, a lot of the documentary is a mixture of interviews and CCTV camera footage with a fairly even handed narrative on the top – it, by itself, isn't that shocking and certainly isn't presented in a particularly sensationalist way. I'm amazed by the reaction it has generated. Yes, there's some post-colonial history there and it doesn't look great that it's the BBC that has made it, as opposed to, say, a US or c…

Apparently it struck too close to home.

Unleashing tax officials on an organization painting a negative picture (well, not, Modi and accoplice paint it, the BBC only presents it) is a failed attempt of masquerading an authoritarian government overstepping their limits of governance. If they were honest and not coward they would simply tell: 'Shouldn't uncover our dirty laundry, get out of here or will get hurt!'

They only highlight not cover this way what we already suspect of India being an elective dictatorship (similar to Hungary).

Re: BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

#82

Post by pasabagi »

s_dev wrote: post #75
Lio wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt it. A) Sunak can't just "pull the BBC into line" as it's independent of the government. B) The BBC regularly criticises the UK government and even the Royal family. If it could get a scoop on some new corruption it would air it as soon as it could. C) We also have people like Led By Donkeys here who air as much dirt as they can on the government. (We are not short of scandals right now, although few involve g…

a) That line of thinking was eviscerated with Johnson and Kussenberg. b) The BBC is biased against Labor and SNP as a growing number of Britons are coming to realise. Clearly towing the line in favor of the Tory party. c) Plenty of nations have such advocacy groups.

Bias is not binary. The establishment bias of the BBC (which I think does exist) doesn't carry over to coverage of a pogrom in Gujarat, because there's no establishment skin in that particular game.

Re: BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

#83

Post by handsclean »

orlp wrote: post #5
John23832 wrote: post #3

I guess at this point I should believe the points made in the documentary. The reaction to it speaks volumes.

"When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say."

Imagine there’s an FBI raid on, or congressional investigation into, whatever American news outlet attacks your political beliefs, and I think you’ll find yourself believing not that the government must be scared of the truth, but that these guys didn’t deserve their tongues.

It’s easy to stand outside a regime’s borders and say it can’t change your reality, and comforting to believe that the truth always comes out in the end, but I think reality is more harsh: “History is written by the winners.”

Re: BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

#84

Post by rhaway84773 »

noduerme wrote: post #68
mytailorisrich wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not diversifying from China because of China. They are because of deteriorating relations with the West that may put them at risk in case of, for instance, sanctions against China.

The West will have some deteriorating relations with India as well if India decides to start ethnic cleansing or stripping citizenship from 100 million Muslims. Consider how much business we do with Burma (approximately $0), even though the labor is quite cheap there. The BBC documentary is a warning shot. To be clear, this is not about the West taking sides in religious or ethnic issues; there are limits on what kin…

The BBC documentary itself is rather benign and brings nothing new to the table other than elevating a UK viewpoint over what many locals have done in the 2 decades in between. If anything, it only displays the BBC’s colonial biases.

The response to this run of the mill documentary which likely no one would have watched and/or heard about has been chilling. The Modi government has absolutely embarrassed itself and has basically gone out of its way to prove that whatever the documentary says is correct, whether it is or isn’t. And the doubling down will hurt not just the governments but also the country’s image.

Re: BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

#85

Post by ignoramous »

madaxe_again wrote: post #64
bovermyer wrote: post #41

Is it just me, or are authoritarian regimes on the rise world-wide?

Yes. We technologists have made it far easier for them to crack down on dissent than ever before.

You'd be surprised by just how many Modi (and right-wing) supporters exist among influential Indians in the Silicon Valley. They're not even subtle about it on Twitter.

Re: BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

#87

Post by eunos »

noduerme wrote: post #68
mytailorisrich wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not diversifying from China because of China. They are because of deteriorating relations with the West that may put them at risk in case of, for instance, sanctions against China.

The West will have some deteriorating relations with India as well if India decides to start ethnic cleansing or stripping citizenship from 100 million Muslims. Consider how much business we do with Burma (approximately $0), even though the labor is quite cheap there. The BBC documentary is a warning shot. To be clear, this is not about the West taking sides in religious or ethnic issues; there are limits on what kin…

Nope. Even Modi himself was a target of sanction (prevented to visit US). After he became PM, all of sudden western world became his buddy again.

Re: BBC offices in India raided by tax officials amid Modi documentary fallout

#89

Post by toyg »

bawolff wrote: post #26
toyg wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is whataboutism. Mr. Sharp is hated by most of the BBC workforce precisely because he is the corrupt representative of a corrupt government. Whatever influence he might ever have had on editorial decisions has long gone.

I don't think it is. Whether appointments to the bbc are the results of bribes is material to if the BJP statement is just making things up as implied by the original poster. Whataboutism isn't a catch all term that can be used to get rid of every opposing argument.

Unless they can show a pattern of corruption in BBC appointments, they're just taking a single example to support an otherwise-baseless argument. Sharp is an outlier, brought about by one of the worst ever UK governments in living memory, which is why we know of him and he's under pressure to leave.
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