Dear Express Reader, The Foreign Hand has found a second life. It was Indira Gandhi's favourite phrase during the Emergency years in the 1970s, when she would blame criticism regarding her administration on foreign powers. The foreign press had criticised her for imposing the Emergency, of course. The liberal society in the West felt she was undermining the democratic nation-state her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, was instrumental in establishing in India after the Indian National Congress-led independence struggle won freedom from the British empire in 1947. Mrs Gandhi expelled the foreign press at the peak of the Emergency. Among those who had to leave India was the BBC correspondent, Mark Tully. The BBC was in the headlines last week. So was the Foreign Hand. Officials from the Income Tax department were at the British broadcaster's offices in Delhi and Mumbai for "surveys". The "surveys" lasted three days. This newspaper said, officials have alleged that the BBC is "non-compliant" under transfer pricing rules and has "diverted significant" profits. No organisation is above the law of the land. The BBC said it cooperated with the surveys. The British government did not comment on the surveys. However, a BJP national spokesperson was quick to condemn the BBC: He described the organisation as "corrupt" and "rubbish" and alleged that it supported "anti-national forces". The editorial in this newspaper ('The Daylight Knock,' February 15) said "the action against the British media organisation with a global presence has come on the heels of the controversial documentary on the PM which the government has said sows 'divisions among various communities, and (makes) unsubstantiated allegations'. Given the recent record of the government vis a vis sections of the media and civil society, the latest action against the BBC — the survey, taken together with the political attack — smacks of bullying and an attempt to intimidate." In January, the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had invoked "emergency" powers under the 2021 IT Rules and ordered online media platforms to take down links sharing the first part of the BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question. The BJP had described the documentary as "hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage". The editorial said the IT action "is part of a disquieting pattern" and recalled the "similar surveys — in 100 locations across nine states — against Oxfam India, think tank Centre for Policy Research — which, incidentally, works with many state governments — and the Independent and Public Spirited Media Foundation (IPSMF)". Soon after the IT "surveys", Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar warned about "doctored narratives" that seek to "run down" India's growth story. He called "dumping of information" a kind of "invasion". "We have to boldly neutralise it (the invasion)," Dhankhar said in an interaction with a group of Indian Information Service (IIS) probationers at his residence on Wednesday. In the Express Opinion section, Shashi Shekhar Vempati, former CEO of Prasar Bharati, defended the action against the BBC. In his article ('What the BBC doesn't get', February 17), Vempati sought to make a distinction between governments in the West and the press and liberal opinion there. He writes: "The rise of Indian democracy under PM Modi has also seen a convergence of interests between global liberal activists and assorted groups of Muslim activists seeking to build a global narrative around alleged Islamophobia. Finding common cause with this convergence, India's hostile neighbourhood has sought to exploit fault lines within Indian democracy with exaggerated global media reports, adding fuel to fire and borderless activists playing the role of saboteurs." Vempati adds that "the stark divergence of perception, of Indian democracy under Narendra Modi, between western heads of state and prominent global media outlets raises the question of whether these media outlets, in their pursuit of an editorial agenda, are unwittingly undermining the emerging global order that seeks to secure their democracies". New Delhi believes that India has a pivotal role in the emerging global order. It seeks to project India as a civilisational state that cannot be assessed using western liberal values. The large market that the country has become also gives the government some leverage to assert its voice on the global stage and ignore all criticism. It will welcome positive reporting of its strengths, of course. Incidentally, the Air India-Airbus-Boeing aircraft deal, the biggest in aviation history, was announced in the backdrop of the IT survey on the BBC. Though the deal involved only private entities, heads of the US, France and the UK spoke in public about it in glowing terms, especially because it involved creation of jobs in their countries. Prime Minister Modi also chipped in, essentially to emphasise India's market clout. No one commented on the "backsliding of democracy" in India, a topic that seems to preoccupy the Western liberal intelligentsia these days. The Express editorial ('The new fleet', February 16) pointed out that India's "growing economic heft also adds to diplomatic heft" and that "this growing economic clout will create greater space for India to negotiate more favourable terms for itself in international negotiations, leverage situations to its advantage, and assert itself on the global area". New Delhi's new assertiveness on the global stage found a reflection in a development involving the Iranian foreign minister. The minister cancelled his visit to Delhi, where he was scheduled to speak at the Raisina Dialogue, a flagship foreign policy event organised by a private think-tank in partnership with the Ministry of External Affairs, because the organisers refused to pull out a two-second video included in promotional material for the event that showed Iranian women cutting their hair during a non-violent protest that began last September. The Express editorial ('The protest test', February 18) describes it as a push back by Delhi. Incidentally, India had refused to vote against a UN resolution that called for a fact-finding mission on human rights violations committed by the Iranian regime on the protestors. As the editorial pointed out, "India's proximity to the US and Iran's increasing proximity to China have also been a challenge to (New Delhi-Tehran) ties". A grand exhibition of Sayed Haider Raza's paintings opened in Paris earlier this week. Ashok Vaypeyi's article ('Raza in Paris', February 16) drew attention to the master artist's oeuvre and how exile shaped its shapes and shades. Suhas Palshikar's take on the BJP after the Adani controversy ('Cracks in the Empire', February 17), Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry's deep reading of theatre in India ('Our theatre, our reflection', February 15) and Kavya Mukhija on how ableism in language further marginalises people with disabilities ('Speaking inclusion', February 17) offered interesting perspectives. Till next week, Amrith Amrith Lal is Deputy Editor with the Opinion team | 
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