Centre threatening fourth pillar of democracy by raiding BBC: AAP

New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government of threatening the fourth pillar of democracy by raiding the BBC.

Lashing out at the government over its actions, AAP leader Atishi said: "The BJP wants to suppress every word spoken or shown against the government. The Income Tax Raid on the BBC is an attack on the democracy of India. Media is the most important pillar of democracy, today the BJP Central government is trying to break the fourth pillar of democracy."

Addressing the media, she said that this is a message to the entire media fraternity that if they show anything against the BJP and the PM, they will meet the same fate. Raising questions about the Centre's intentions behind the action, she said: "BJP banned the documentary made by BBC to prevent the country from seeing these allegations unfold. India is at number 150 out of 180 countries in the Global Index of Press Freedom, today the whole world is questioning India's democratic status."

"Why has the BBC been raided? Because today, not only India but the entire world is discussing the BBC documentary. First of all, the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Central government got that documentary banned and removed from websites and social media so that no one in India is able to watch it. This was the first act of censorship by the BJP-ruled central government after the BBC's documentary on Narendra Modi."

And with today's income tax raid, she alleged, that the BJP-led central government "is threatening all of us and asserting that no one, not even a globally famous organisation like the BBC can say, write, or show anything that is critical of their administration".

Atishi asked the BJP to explain what image of India does it want to present to the whole world.

"History is witness that you can suppress the voice of the people for some time but you cannot suppress the voice of every person forever," she said, appealing to the BJP to not intimidate the media like this, and stop tarnishing India's image in front of the world.