West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee slams Centre over I-T dept's survey at BBC offices

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the Centre on British Broadcasting Corporation‘s (BBC) Income Tax survey and called it “political vendetta” of the central government.

"This is dictatorship and I extend my sympathy and support to the media and BBC,” Banerjee said on the IT survey at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai.

“If there is anything illegal, they can write a letter and speak to them. I am not supporting anything illegal…I don’t believe this idea- this is not desirable and it is very unfortunate. It is a political vendetta of the BJP government,” Banerjee told mediapersons at her chamber in the West Bengal assembly.


Calling the incident “unfortunate”, Banerjee even compared the act with the dictatorship of Hitler.

The Income Tax department conducted a survey at the Delhi and Mumbai offices, which continued for the second day today.

The tax department had launched the survey as part of an investigation into alleged tax evasion against the British broadcaster in India, people in the know said. It happened weeks after the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary, "India: The Modi Question", on the 2002 Gujarat riots and PM Narendra Modi.

“One day there will be no media in the country. Media is already controlled by them. Media cannot raise their voices… I don’t understand why they are doing this! They (BJP leaders) don’t care about people’s mandate, we must abide by the Constitution,” she said.

“We want the judiciary to be neutral. Sometimes they have spoken against and wanted to capture the judiciary,” Banerjee emphasized.