Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri slammed the BBC’s claim of press freedom after the Income Tax agency raided BBC offices in the country on Tuesday, claiming the British broadcaster is under control of people with an agenda against India.

Meeting hosted under “Jan Sampark Abhiyan”

Puri addressed a meeting of BJP activists and leaders in the RS Pura region of Jammu district on Tuesday as part of the “Jan Sampark Abhiyan”. He arrived in Jammu on Monday for a two-day visit to assess the progress of his Ministry’s development initiative in the Jammu Division.

Our laws are very transparent: Hardeep Singh Puri

While addressing the media he said, “Our laws are very transparent. If someone is not paying tax and we send notice to them, then they say, it is an issue of Freedom of the Press…I would not like to go into details but some of their actions in the past made it seem that they were in the hands of people with an agenda on India.”

Income Tax raided raided BBC in February this year

Notably, Income Tax raided the British broadcaster’s offices in New Delhi and Mumbai in February of this year. The broadcaster came under the scrutiny of Indian authorities after it aired a contentious documentary titled ‘India: The Modi Question,’ which received harsh criticism from the Indian government and harmed the country’s image. ED had already issued a summons to BBC, requesting a probe into the matter.

BBC was accused of propaganda

The documentary ‘India: The Modi Question,’ was highly criticized by Indian government and people from across the country which questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the Gujarat riots of 2002. The BBC was accused of distributing false news, propaganda and trying to destabilize the country.

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