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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

#231

Post by naravara »

paganel wrote: post #182
mikehotel wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many Indians in America or Americans of Indian descent disagree with the rise of fascism in India. Of course many also fall into the default nationalistic mode and become defensive. Actions to take against a ruling party that has widespread support from the police, legislature, judiciary, and media are limited. In India, about 15% of Indians are Christians, Muslims, or other non Hindus. And among Hindus, about 40% ar…

> Many Indians in America or Americans of Indian descent disagree with the rise of fascism in India I'm aware of that, as I'm also aware that many Russians (especially the educated tech elites) are against the current government in Moscow. I was trying to put myself in the shoes of the guys calling the shots in Washington, as in, what measures should be taken in regards to the Chinese very-well represented tech diasp…

Where did you get 40%? The proportion of scheduled castes is somewhere in the mid-20s, you only get into the mid- to high-30s if you include "Other Backwards Castes," who aren't Dalits but are able to make a general case that they were low on the status hierarchy historically. But, cynically, that whole framework is mostly just a way for the numerically large smallholder classes to create reservations, that were originally meant to correct for untouchability, for themselves through a sort of caste-based patronage politics.

There are also lower and higher castes among Indian Muslims and Christians as well. It's a indigenous form of social stratification, more analogous to how we think of ethnicity or race, that's independent of peoples' confessional identity.

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

#232

Post by dec0dedab0de »

ryandrake wrote: post #204
wil421 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was riding bikes to the store we had dialup and floppies were giving way to CDs. It’s been over a decade since I’ve used BitTorrent and I didn’t know magnet links were still popular. I hate seeding and there was also a lot of malware hidden in public trackers. Once I switched to Usenet I never looked back. P2P file sharing has never been a good experience for me.

How does one get malware from playing a .mkv or .mp4 video file?

There would need to be an unpatched vulnerability in your player that the file exploited. Only virus I ever got was from an mp3 file that exploited the vulnerable version of winamp that I was using because I hated the newer version.

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

#233

Post by oblio »

dustedcodes wrote: post #159
oblio wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People waking up to the fact that the West and the East are equally bad You probably want to define what "East" is in this context. If East is Russia + China, it's trivially easy to prove that the West is better for its own citizens. 1. Economic levels in the West. 2. Respect for citizens' lives in the West. I'm from a country that used to be in the Eastern Bloc, and let me tell you, nobody respects its citizens' l…

Russia stretches from the West to the East but the vast majority of life happens in a very small vertical part of the most Western flank of Russia, which is why I actually consider Russia ethnically and culturally to be part of the West, just stuck in a horrible past. I would love to see a statistic where China has more military casualties than let's say the USA, in total numbers and in % of population I think the US…

> I would love to see a statistic where China has more military casualties than let's say the USA, in total numbers and in % of population I think the USA will exceed China, not least because the USA has been at war ever since I'm alive, China, well not so much.

LOLNO.

This is very well documented, and even if you ignore all the Chinese civil wars, most of which had more casualties than regular wars. Heck, one of their civil wars had almost as many casualties as WW1.

The US has been in a lot of wars but their military casualties are very low overall. They generally beat the other guys up very badly but they're quite careful to not lose people, in comparison with other countries.

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

#234

Post by toyg »

_fat_santa wrote: post #219
skilled wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a better question is, "Who is causing this reaction?". As in, who is the person who cannot bear this and is it because the ego is being bruised, or because it portrays India in a certain manner? Maybe some of these world leaders should consider therapy seeing as they can't handle their own problems by themselves and rather punish people around them for it.

Another victim of the Streisand effect. Modi's reaction to the documentary has done far more damage than just the documentary by itself. It's like the BBC released this doc and Modi's government is giving it free marketing worldwide with the outsized reaction. This would have been just another docuseries on the BBC had they not reacted like this. Now everyone is sharing links and wanting to see what the fuss is all a…

> Another victim of the Streisand effect.

Oh no. The Streisand Effect is so '90s.

Current political operatives the world over, particularly conservative/nationalist ones, have since learnt to weaponize Streisand - they stoke polarization on relatively minor arguments, in order to foster a siege mentality where everyone is forced to declare whether they are "with us or against us". This solidifies their support and makes the opposition look vague and unprincipled.

This is a line that goes all the way from GWBush to Berlusconi, Modri, Orbàn, Trump, Abbott, Turnbull, Erdogan, Salvini, and Johnson.

Modri wants this to be a big thing, precisely because it allows him to play the victim against "evil and corrupt colonialists bent on keeping India down". As policies go, it costs effectively nothing and has great propaganda value.

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

#235

Post by iso1631 »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #168
iso1631 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The BBC office in Delhi at the Hindustan Times building employs 200+ people, including many UK staff on temporary attachment. It massively expanded in 2016 but it dates back far longer. I wouldn't be confident that every piece of equipment in that office was obtained legally in the country, let alone being able to prove it. For example someone whose mobile phone got lost/smashed/blownup last time they were in Kabul,…

"For example someone whose mobile phone got lost/smashed/blownup last time they were in Kabul, so they bought a new one" How is that related to the BBC?

"As the raids are underway, documents were seized and phones and laptops of journalists were taken away. Employees were asked not to call anyone."

If those phones were bought out of country there may be tax implications

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

#236

Post by iso1631 »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #193
blincoln wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is that related to the BBC? I think iso1631 is saying that there may be enough red tape for imports into India that the BBC could technically be breaking the law for failing to declare/pay duties on some equipment they or their employees brought into the country. If you're in the US, my experience is that it's kind of an anomaly in terms of relatively light enforcement of import taxes for individual citizens. F…

Yes, but how is the BBC responsible for their employees buying phones and bringing them in the country? Was the BBC telling their employees to do this? It wasn't the employees home raided but the BBC office.

The BBC provides journalists with phones to do their job, be that a live broadcast using something like LU-Smart, or just getting their emails on the road.

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

#237

Post by oblio »

dharmach wrote: post #214
oblio wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People waking up to the fact that the West and the East are equally bad You probably want to define what "East" is in this context. If East is Russia + China, it's trivially easy to prove that the West is better for its own citizens. 1. Economic levels in the West. 2. Respect for citizens' lives in the West. I'm from a country that used to be in the Eastern Bloc, and let me tell you, nobody respects its citizens' l…

> People waking up to the fact that the West and the East are equally bad The West has resources and well-oiled propaganda machinery in place to control the dissent that's why they don't need to use violence as openly as not-so-rich countries. When their monopoly is threatened, they act equally ruthlessly.

> The West has resources and well-oiled propaganda machinery in place to control the dissent that's why they don't need to use violence as openly as not-so-rich countries.

Disregarding the fact that proving your angle is super hard.

So what? It sure beats beating and killing people.

> When their monopoly is threatened, they act equally ruthlessly.

Ok, but if they don't have to do that all the time, it > makes them better.

It's a tough pill to swallow, go check military casualties for wars. Get back to me after reading Wikipedia pages (so nothing super fancy) for 50-100, chosen randomly, and tell me how many have higher casualty rates for the Western party.

My back of the napkin analysis says that at most 10% of those wars have more Western casualties.

At the end of the day, that's what it boils down to. If you find ways to avoid violence and when you do have to become violent your stuff is better armorer, moves faster, shoots farther, flies higher, well, that's because someone ultimately, to some degree, maybe because they were forced by public consensus, respected citizens' lives.

It doesn't much matter how you get to that respect if you do get there more than your perceived rivals.

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

#238

Post by mikehotel »

paganel wrote: post #182
mikehotel wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many Indians in America or Americans of Indian descent disagree with the rise of fascism in India. Of course many also fall into the default nationalistic mode and become defensive. Actions to take against a ruling party that has widespread support from the police, legislature, judiciary, and media are limited. In India, about 15% of Indians are Christians, Muslims, or other non Hindus. And among Hindus, about 40% ar…

> Many Indians in America or Americans of Indian descent disagree with the rise of fascism in India I'm aware of that, as I'm also aware that many Russians (especially the educated tech elites) are against the current government in Moscow. I was trying to put myself in the shoes of the guys calling the shots in Washington, as in, what measures should be taken in regards to the Chinese very-well represented tech diasp…

The USG uses sanctions against organizations or individuals that act against its interests. When it is in a war, nationals from that country will receive increased scrutiny but I hope USG have learned from the internment of Japanese citizens in US during WWII that there is a line that shouldn’t be crossed. (Gitmo indicates they have indeed learned something.)

I understand your point about how unfair and unjust guilt by association is. In a country that hoists the banner of freedom and attracts the best and the brightest from around the world, the US must take steps to protect civilians in the US from bigotry and discrimination. Regardless of their background.

I apologize for the current political climate causing Russians civilians in the US to feel this way. If it is of any solace, be assured they are not alone in their experiences.

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

#239

Post by pessimizer »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #228
pessimizer wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll obviously have better luck with them than with BBC iPlayer, for which they would need the knowledge and ability to set up a British VPN.

I thought you were right at first, but with commercial VPNs constantly be advertised as a way to get around content restrictions, I wouldn't be surprised if more people understood a VPN than a torrent these days. Assuming they're willing to pay that is.

"Understood" is different from "can afford" and "has the ability to purchase," and definitely different from "will subscribe to an otherwise useless British VPN in order to watch two hours of television."

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

#240

Post by oblio »

FooBarWidget wrote: post #152
oblio wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People waking up to the fact that the West and the East are equally bad You probably want to define what "East" is in this context. If East is Russia + China, it's trivially easy to prove that the West is better for its own citizens. 1. Economic levels in the West. 2. Respect for citizens' lives in the West. I'm from a country that used to be in the Eastern Bloc, and let me tell you, nobody respects its citizens' l…

I'm Chinese. I'm not commenting on Russia but please keep China out of "trivially easy to prove that the West is better for its own citizens". Chinese citizen have been found to be far more satisfied with their government and their future prospects than for example the US. This "propaganda"-sounding fact is even something found by western institutions such as Harvard, York University and Democracy Perception Index! E…

> Chinese citizen have been found to be far more satisfied with their government and their future prospects than for example the US.

How could you possibly know this? I'm from an Eastern European country that was under dictatorship (partially inspired by North Korea and PRC).

There's a deep culture of duplicity in such authoritarian regimes. You'd be a fool to say stuff that puts a bullseye on your head.

Saying that stuff is not working correctly and the future isn't bright is an implicit criticism of the authorities and I'm sure the very politically astute and smart Chinese citizens are super aware of this.

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