DU campus on boil over BBC documentary: Section 144 imposed, 24 detained

The Delhi University’s authorities have swung into action after a group of students planned the screening of the BBC documentary that questioned the role of Narendra Modi during the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat. Police have already detained as many as 24 students from the campus.

The authorities have imposed Section 144 as preempting measures to stop the student group from screening of the documentary, “India: The Modi Question,” which takes a critical look at Modi’s role in handling the riots as chief minister of the state. The screening of the documentary has been arranged by the NSUI-KSU.

DU proctor Rajni Abbi said the university authorities will not allow the screening of the documentary and they have already written to the police, according to the Hindustan Times. No permission was sought from the university authorities, the proctor said. “We have received information that NSUI is planning to screen this documentary at the Arts faculty… No permission has been sought for it. We will not allow such behaviour,” the proctor said.

“At around 4pm today, some 20 persons came outside the Arts faculty gate to screen the banned BBC documentary. As it can cause disturbance of peace and tranquility in the area, they were asked to disperse from there. When they did not, they were peacefully detained,” DCP North said adding that the situation is peaceful now.

JNU students’ union claimed the university authorities disconnected electricity ahead of the screening forcing them to screen the documentary on laptops in the torch light. An incident of stone-pelting was reported from the campus on Tuesday.

After the JNU incident, Left and Congress-backed students’ unions called for the screening of the much-debated documentary leading to unrest on campuses, reported the paper. Students’ union of Delhi’s Ambedkar University too planned to screen the documentary at 1pm but it could not be held as planned as the power supply was disconnected, the students’ union alleged, according to the news outlet.

The government has blocked the airing of the documentary invoking emergency laws over the weekend.  The government argued that when the Supreme Court-appointed panel had already given a clean chit, yet some people are under the ‘colonial intoxication’. Ministry of information and broadcasting issued directions banning any clips from the episode being shared under legislation introduced in 2021 that allow for the “blocking of information in case of emergency”.

-INDIA NEWS STREAM