Students were detained by Delhi police on Wednesday as they gathered to watch a new BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India has dismissed as propaganda and blocked its streaming and sharing on social media.
It followed similar disruptions, some of which turned violent, at a gathering this week by students to watch a documentary questioning Modi’s leadership during the deadly riots two decades ago, as his opponents questioned government censorship.
Modi, who is aiming for a third term in elections next year, was chief minister of Gujarat in February 2002 when a suspected Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, sparking one of India’s worst outbreaks of religious bloodshed.
In revenge attacks in the country at least 1,000 people have been killed, mostly Muslims, as many have roamed the streets for days, targeting minority groups. Activists made about 2,500, more than double that number.
Modi denied accusations that he did not do enough to end the unrest, and he was acquitted in 2012 after an inquiry overseen by the Supreme Court. A petition questioning the exoneration was dismissed last year.
The government said the BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” released last week was biased “propaganda” and blocked the sharing of any clips on social media.
The Students Federation of India (SFI) said on Wednesday that it will show the documentary in every state of India.
“They will not stop dissenting voices,” said Mayukh Biswas, secretary general of the SFI, the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Before one of the screenings at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi, 13 students were detained amid police deployment. The university blamed the students for creating “riots in the streets” and said they did not have permission to stage the show, police said.
“There is no possibility that anyone who tries to disrupt university discipline will go free,” the university’s vice chancellor, Najma Akhtar, told Reuters.
A day earlier, bricks were hurled, allegedly by members of a right-wing group, at students hoping to watch a documentary at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, students said.
Student leader Aishe Ghosh said she watched the documentary on her phone and laptop after the electricity went off about half an hour before the scheduled screening.
The university refused permission and threatened disciplinary action if the documentary was aired.
“It’s clear the administration is killing the power,” Ghosh said. “We are encouraging campuses across the country to hold screenings as an act of resistance to this censorship.”
The university’s media coordinator did not comment when asked about the power outage on campus.
A spokesman for the right-wing student group did not respond to messages seeking comment. A police spokesman did not respond to inquiries.
Protests also erupted after a screening of the film on a campus in the southern state of Kerala on Tuesday, while a screening was canceled in the middle of a university in the northern city of Chandigarh, according to local media reports.
Derek O’Brien, a member of parliament in the upper house of parliament, wrote on Twitter on Saturday that the opposition “will continue to fight the good fight against censorship” in reference to the block to share clips from the documentary on social media.
The BBC said the documentary series examines the tensions between India’s Hindu majority and its Muslim minority and explores Modi’s politics in relation to those tensions.
“The document was carefully scrutinized to the highest editorial standards,” the BBC said.
It drew on “a wide range of voices, witnesses and experts” and presented a range of opinions including responses from those in Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the BBC said.
Source: Reuters
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