One of Britain’s most highly regarded editors, who served for 15 years as the editor-in-chief of the Financial Times, says the tax surveys at BBC offices in Delhi and Mumbai – which many people view as raids – “look like a vendetta” and are “certainly intimidation”. Lionel Barber says that this treatment of the BBC is “reminiscent of the Soviet Union”.In an 18-minute interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Barber suggested that the tax surveys, coming just three weeks after the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his alleged involvement in the 2002 Gujarat violence, do raise questions about their timing. He said: “The optics of such raids are pretty bad.” Asked if this smacks of revenge, Barber said, “I don’t use words like revenge”, adding he puts more faith in the “cock-up” theory of history than that of “conspiracy”.Barber said that he’s seen the first part of the two-part BBC documentary but not the second. Asked how he evaluated part one, he said that it had given an opportunity to Modi supporters or BJP members to put their side of the story. Asked if it was journalistically proper of the BBC to raise the issue of the Gujarat killings of 2002 more than two decades later, he said, “Nothing is off limits.”The following are some of the issues raised in the interview. Are tax surveys the best way of handling genuine concerns which the government may have about BBC tax matters? Does India’s handling of the BBC raise questions about India’s boast of being the world’s largest democracy? Is the silence from the British government in London or the British High Commission in Delhi understandable or a mistake? Does the British government – like many others in the West – tolerate or accept the Modi government’s treatment of the BBC and wider concerns about its intolerance of dissent and other human rights concerns because of India’s geopolitical importance as a bulwark against China and because of the huge market India offers?Please see the interview for a fuller understanding of Lionel Barber’s views.