As the Income Tax department continued its survey operation against BBC India for the second day, the opposition parties slammed the Centre for crushing the freedom of the media, and sending a wrong message globally and damaging India’s image as a democracy.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s past was exposed by the BBC, “he used investigation agencies as his ‘frontal organisations’ to raid an international media outlet”, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said. “This is particularly perturbing for India’s image because we are hosting the G-20 Summit and the Modi government is going gaga over it (G-20),” he added.