Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 27: Students from two other top universities in the national capital Delhi University and Ambedkar University have announced they will screen the controversial BBC series on PM, Narendra Modi on Friday at their campuses, two days after Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University dramatically cut off power and electricity in campus to prevent students from screening the BBC documentary.
According to the police officials, the DU administration has confirmed that they have taken preventive measures to stop any such screening and protest called by student outfits.
Sources added that Talks are being held to persuade students to take back the call for the screening on their own and there will be heavy police deployment for security reasons and action will be taken if students gather for the screening.
Left-leaning student organisations have been up in arms after the Centre’s move to block access to the BBC documentary. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting directed social media platforms Twitter and YouTube to block links to the BBC documentary, which claims it investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when PM Modi was the chief minister of the state.
The documentary as a propaganda piece has been criticized by, the Ministry of External Affairs. He added that it lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) responded to the BBC series by claiming that it was entirely biased, even raising questions on “the purpose of the exercise and the agenda behind it.”
In the confrontation with the government directive, student bodies and youth wings of opposition parties announced their intention to hold screenings of the documentary at college campuses in various states.
Earlier, the student group at Hyderabad Central University (HCU) Student Islamic Organisation (SIO) and Muslim Student Federation known as the Fraternity group organised a screening of the documentary inside the campus on Monday. More than 50 students from these groups attended the screening. It was screened again in the campus on Thursday, this time by the left students’ group SFI.
Also at Jamia Millia Islamia, 13 students were detained for organising the screening of the BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots on Wednesday. They were later released.
