CHENNAI: A group of Madras University students on Friday screened a BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. They were protesting against the Union government blocking the online links to the documentary.The members of Students Federation of India (SFI) in Madras University had sought the university's permission to screen the documentary in the university's auditorium. However, the university authorities did not give permission. So, a group of students gathered outside the auditorium and tried to screen the movie. University staff tried to prevent the screening. Students argued that it was not banned in the country and went ahead screening it on a laptop."The BBC documentary exposes how the riots against the minorities were supported by the then Gujarat government headed by Modi in 2002. The SFI had called for screening of the documentary on every campus in the country to expose Modi’s role in the riots," said SFI Chennai central district president V Arunkumar.Mirudhula, another student, said the protest was organised to save democracy. "The Union government is misusing its power by blocking the documentary. They are spreading hatred against Muslims and minorities," she said."The preamble of the Constitution says it is a democratic, secular republic. However, the government is blocking access to the BBC documentary to prevent students from knowing the truth about the Gujarat riots," said SFI state secretary Niruban Chakaravarthy.When contacted, Madras University officials told TOI that the auditorium was not available on Friday and some students from outside the university screened the documentary. However, students said they were postgraduate students studying social sciences in the university.
The Student Federation of India (SFI) will show the documentary at Jadavpur University on Thursday.Kolkata: Left student bodies of West Bengal have planned to screen the controversial BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the campuses of at least two universities of Kolkata.The Student Federation of India (SFI) will show the documentary at Jadavpur University on Thursday and at Presidency University the day after, the state organisation's assistant secretary Subhajit Sarkar said."The documentary will be screened via a projector. We are yet to get permission from the university authorities. We will carry on with the screening even if we do not get it," Sarkar said. "We hope that many of the general students, including those who don't support us, will come and watch it. We want people to join us in discussion and debate about the film," he said.All India Students' Association (AISA), another Left body, also decided to screen the documentary on the campus of Jadavpur University on January 27, said Sandip Nayak, a senior member of the organisation.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comMembers of Presidency University's visual arts society will also screen the documentary on February 1, said Moitreyo Sarkar, one of the organisers.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)Featured Video Of The DayStubble Burning In Bhopal Gets A Fresh, Eco-Friendly Solution
Left student's body arranged the BBC documentary screening at Jadavpur University. (File)Kolkata: More than 100 students at Jadavpur University have reportedly watched the controversial BBC documentary on 2002 Gujarat riots, with a Left student's body having arranged its screening. The Centre has recently issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the documentary 'India: The Modi Question', which claims to have investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 riots when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister of the state.The Student Federation of India (SFI), a Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s arm, said the police or institute authorities did not interfere with the screening at Jadavpur University on Thursday.SFI state unit assistant secretary Subhajit Sarkar said that the student's body will hold another screening at Presidency University on Friday.Authorities at Presidency are yet to give a formal nod, but "we will still go ahead with the show", he said.Mr Sarkar, a former Presidency student, also claimed, "The varsity has effected a power cut at the badminton court, where the screening was supposed to be held. We will now use the common room for the show." An official at the university, however, said the power cut happened due to technical reasons.He stated that no such documentary was being shown on the university premises.Meanwhile, All India Students' Association (AISA), another Left body, said it will hold another screening of the documentary at Jadavpur University on Friday.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comThe Centre also ordered YouTube to take down copies of the document.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)Featured Video Of The Day"Had To Call Off My Walk...": Rahul Gandhi Alleges Security Lapse At Yatra
The Congress unit in Kerala screened the controversial BBC documentaryThiruvananthapuram: The Congress unit in Kerala on Thursday screened the controversial BBC documentary on PM Narendra Modi in Thiruvananthapuram even though the central government has banned it in India saying it's false and motivated "propaganda".The public showing of the series — the two-part documentary speaks about the 2002 Gujarat riots and PM Modi's politics — was one of many such events organised by several Opposition parties and free-speech activists across the country. The Congress is in the opposition in Kerala, too, but the ruling CPM has also taken a stand against banning the documentary.In Kerala, the documentary is at the centre of row even within the Congress as veteran leader AK Antony's son Anil K Antony recently quit the party alleging "intolerant calls to retract a tweet" in which he had defied the Congress stand and called the BBC documentary a "dangerous precedent".In response to Anil Antony's argument that it undermines India's sovereignty, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Lok Sabha member from Thiruvananthapuram, had said his argument is "immature"."[Are] our national security and sovereignty so fragile to be affected by a documentary?" Mr Tharoor said.Today's screening on Shangumugham Beach in Kerala capital Thiruvananthapuram came in quick succession of such protest screenings in Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and one by the Congress student wing NSUI in Chandigarh.PromotedListen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comMeanwhile, the Students Federation of India (SFI) also screened the documentary on the campus of Jadavpur University in Kolkata on Thursday evening, without any interference from the police.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, speaking to reporters in Jammu, had questioned censorship. "Truth shines bright. It has a nasty habit of coming out. So no amount of banning, oppression and frightening people is going to stop the truth from coming out," he said.
NEW DELHI: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju has slammed the controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots, saying India's image cannot be disgraced with "malicious campaigns". In a series of tweets in English and Hindi on Saturday and Sunday, he said minorities, or for that matter, every community in India is moving ahead positively. "India's image cannot be disgraced by malicious campaigns launched inside or outside India," he said, adding that Prime Minister Modi's voice is the voice of 1.4 billion Indians. "Some people in India have still not gotten over the colonial hangover. They consider BBC above the Supreme Court of India and lower the country's dignity and image to any extent to please their moral masters," Rijiju said. He said much cannot be expected from members of the "tukde-tukde gang who seek to weaken the might of India.
NEW DELHI: A group of over 300 eminent Indians, including ex-judges, retired bureaucrats and military veterans, on Saturday slammed a BBC documentary on PM Modi for its “unrelenting prejudice” towards India. In a signed statement, they criticised the BBC series, which they claimed is based on “deluded and slanted reporting” and presumes to call into question the entire foundation of India’s existence as an independent, democratic country. The documentary claims it probed certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was Gujarat CM. The I&B ministry has issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the series. “Yet again, the staple, dyed-in-the-wool negativity and unrelenting prejudice of the BBC toward India has resurfaced as a documentary...,” said the letter, signed by 13 ex-judges, 133 ex-bureaucrats, including diplomats, and 156 military veterans. Prominent among the signatories include ex-chief justice of Rajasthan HC Anil Deo Singh, ex-home secretary LS Goyal, former RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, former NIA chief Yogesh Chander Modi and ex-UP DGP OP Singh.They said the film is “a visibly motivated chargesheet against our leader, a fellow Indian and a patriot”. “We can’t allow just about anyone to run amok with their deliberate bias, their vacuous reasoning hiding behind phrases like ‘it was widely reported’ or that ‘there were pretty credible reports’,” the statement said. It pointed out that the glaring factual errors apart, the documentary reeks of motivated distortion that is as “mind-numbingly unsubstantiated as it is nefarious”.“This is demonstrated by its completely sidelining the core fact: that the apex judicial institution of India, the Supreme Court, has unambiguously ruled out any role of Modi in the Gujarat violence of 2002, while rejecting allegations of complicity and inaction by the then Gujarat government,” it said.
