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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

#151

Post by anaganisk »

throwawaybbc wrote: post #142
TheArcane wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he has cultivated an anti-muslim strongman persona - which started largely at the 2002 Gujarat anti-muslim riots

[flagged]

When you make your comment with "their shitty book," I can immediately say you are an uninformed and extremely prejudiced right-wing person. Have you taken a look into how some hindu preachers twist Hindu books? Or have you known of the dark stuff the Hindu religion has? Heck, some places still treat some people as untouchables and dont even allow them around temples. Again, if you are an atheist and say all religious books are shitty I would've even understood that. No, its not their books it always politicians like Modi who base their entire charishma on stifling some community are the problem. Like how VHP and RSS goons tormet lovers on valentines Day or How without any basis in science, some religious fanatics push cows as ultimate savior. Billions of muslims are co-existing worldwide, and no one has problems with them. And if you use extremist action as a metric to judge the entire population, I would say you are bigoted.

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

#152

Post by FooBarWidget »

oblio wrote: post #114
dustedcodes wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, extreme ideologies (left and right wing) and authoritarian views are on the rise because of three factors playing out at the same time: 1. Globalisation showing its cracks and becoming increasingly clear to be the reason for the skyrocketing of inequality and the widening of the wealth gap between the rich and the poor 2. People waking up to the fact that the West and the East are equally bad with a constant str…

> 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! Even here in the Netherlands, Chinese diaspora that I know and that have come here in the past 10-15 years are very positive about China. In China, police don't wear guns, and women can safely walk on the streets during the night — something which you can't say about many western countries.

Of course China still has many of its own problems. But the cartoonish notion that it's some sort of totalitarian police state dictatorship where everybody wants to flee from is propaganda. China and the west both have their own problems and their own strong points.

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

#153

Post by vidarh »

adwww wrote: post #117
capableweb wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're interested, you can get it (legally) in the UK here And if you happen to be belong to the rest of the ~99.13% world population, you can grab it here: Episode 1 - magnet:?xt=urn:btih:3C378A82CF67A1107523CA6C647077403A1EF74D&dn=India+The+Modi+Question+S01E01+1080p+HDTV+H264-DARKFLiX&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A…

Ha there is no way that 99% of the world population know what to do with those links / hashes / whatever they are.

Maybe not, but the subset of the 99% that are on HN are far more likely to know what to do with them or how to find it out.

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

#154

Post by iamshs »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #140
iamshs wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine saying "post-colonial history" about a massacre done by Hindu revivalist movement started and benefited most from the colonial times. This "post-colonial" term has been weaponized by RSS-BJP and plays to their advantage now. Imagine if they can raid BBC offices, what happens to normal press corps.

Curious to know why you think the BBC should be exempt. The head of the BBC is in hot water for arranging a loan for the then British PM, Boris Johnson.

What post-colonial narrative does BBC spew? If you see BBC regional languages programs, you will see that it platforms RSS-BJP's Hindu Nationalistic rhetoric to a far greater degree.

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

#155

Post by KingOfCoders »

amriksohata wrote: post #110
KingOfCoders wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what the Muslims in India think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_Muslims_in_In...

An equivalent list could be made, just with the numbers of 400k Hindus that were exodus in Kashmir. Thats not the point, the point is the view from India is a British outlet like the BBC is meddling with Indian upcoming elections. There is already decades of suspicion around what the British did to create divides between Hindus and Muslims with partition, so this is treated with high suspicion.

1. "Muslims and Hindus have found peace since the event"

2. "An equivalent list could be made, just with the numbers of 400k Hindus that were exodus in Kashmir."

Thanks for proving my point.

[Edit]

"Muslims and Hindus have found peace since the event"

"In November 2022, at an election rally in Khambhat [Gujarat], Indian Home Minister Amit Shah boasted of demolitions undertaken by the BJP in Muslim areas. By emphasizing the issue of clearing out alleged `fake mazars (Islamic shrines or mausoleums)` [...] Salma Ben, 50, a resident of Akbarpur, has suffered for simply being a Muslim in Khambhat more times than she can remember. In February 2019, she recalled for The Diplomat, her house was burned down by a violent mob chanting Hindu mantras."

https://thediplomat.com/2023/01/how-gujarats-khambhat-became...

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

#156

Post by iso1631 »

wkat4242 wrote: post #113
miroljub wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unleashing tax officials on an organization painting a negative picture (well, not, Modi i and accoplice paint it, the BBC only presents it) is a failed attempt of masquerading an authoritarian government overstepping their limits of governance. Isn't that what every government do? Remember that Al Capone went to jail because of tax issues, the government couldn't prove anything he was accused to. If you look at Ge…

Capone was guilty of tax fraud because the money laundering part of his criminal enterprise was the part that was the least well organised. Nothing wrong with that. Somehow I doubt the BBC is laundering billions in bootlegging money. I don't know anything about the German guy.

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, so they bought a new one, then returned to their Delhi office. Or a piece of equipment that was legally imported back in 2012 but the paperwork has gone. Or a UK purchased harddrive that a passing cameraman left in the edit suite, or something bought locally but the receipt didn't list the serial number on it.

I'm confident there will be an "irregularity" somewhere. I'm confident any office in any building in any city in the world will have similar problems irrefutably proving where any equipment came from.

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

#157

Post by CalRobert »

adwww wrote: post #117
capableweb wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're interested, you can get it (legally) in the UK here And if you happen to be belong to the rest of the ~99.13% world population, you can grab it here: Episode 1 - magnet:?xt=urn:btih:3C378A82CF67A1107523CA6C647077403A1EF74D&dn=India+The+Modi+Question+S01E01+1080p+HDTV+H264-DARKFLiX&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.coppersurfer.tk%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Ftracker.openbittorrent.com%3A6969%2Fannounce&tr=udp%3A…

Ha there is no way that 99% of the world population know what to do with those links / hashes / whatever they are.

But a lot of them will be able to find out if they care to learn.

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

#158

Post by [deleted] »

gadders wrote: post #102
s_dev wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>>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. The BBC might not like the Labour Party (especially under Corbyn) but you can't deny it is 99% pro-left.

[deleted]

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

#159

Post by dustedcodes »

oblio wrote: post #114
dustedcodes wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, extreme ideologies (left and right wing) and authoritarian views are on the rise because of three factors playing out at the same time: 1. Globalisation showing its cracks and becoming increasingly clear to be the reason for the skyrocketing of inequality and the widening of the wealth gap between the rich and the poor 2. People waking up to the fact that the West and the East are equally bad with a constant str…

> 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 USA will exceed China, not least because the USA has been at war ever since I'm alive, China, well not so much.

I'm not going to go down this rabbit hole with you. You can select metrics which will "prove" that the West cares more about its people than China or other Asian countries and equally you can pull metrics which will unequivocally "prove" the opposite. This is precisely what I meant in my original comment.

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

#160

Post by cubancigar11 »

Superblazer wrote: post #52

The only problem I have with this is that free speech is being limited. I don't believe the documentary nor do I belive their government. What if both sides are promoting some sort of a propaganda?

I like to think the government is just incompetently responding to a useless propaganda piece. But the so called documentary could very well be a well timed attack to benefit the more palatable opposition to the current government that has embarassed the West in not immediately bending over backwards in Ukraine war. Or this ridiculous response from the government could actually be a way to bring the Hindu far-right back into the fold since it is not happy with the current government. (The "fascist government" thing really is propaganda btw.)
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