The Congress's Pune city unit staged a 'silent' protest on Wednesday against the Income Tax department's survey operations at the BBC's offices in Delhi and Mumbai, and claimed media houses and journalists were under pressure since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014.

The action, which sparked a sharp political debate with the ruling BJP accusing the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) of "venomous reporting" and the opposition questioning the timing of the move, comes weeks after the broadcaster aired a two-part documentary "India: The Modi Question" on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots.