New Delhi/Hyderabad: Students at Jawahar Lal Nehru University (JNU) Tuesday claimed that the administration cut off the electricity and internet to stop the screening of the controversial BBC documentary that holds Prime Minister Narendra Modi "directly responsible" for the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The students said the varsity had no electricity supply since 8:30 pm. The NJU Students' Union had planned to screen the BBC Documentary title 'India" The Modi Question' at 9 pm. The JNU administration had already advised the union to cancel the screening of the controversial documentary.
In a statement released the previous day, the JNU administration said that no prior permission was taken from the administration. “The concerned students/individuals are firmly advice to cancel the proposed programme immediately failing which strict disciplinary action may be initiated as per the university rules,” the JNU administration statement said.
“This is to emphasise that such an unauthorised activity may disturb peace and harmony of the university campus,” the university said. Reacting to the circular, the president of the JNU students’ union, Aishe Ghosh shared an old tweet of the Prime Minister from 2018. “I think the JNU Administration missed the tweet by our PM tweeted some years back. Just reminding. We take his words quite seriously,” Aishe tweeted.
Meanwhile, a students group at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) also organised screening of the documentary on campus without prior notice or permission, prompting the University authorities to seek a report on the event for taking necessary action. The Fraternity Movement in UoH campus, a students' group, organised the screening of the BBC documentary on January 21 at the shopping complex, in the North Campus of the University without prior notice or permission, UoH Registrar Devesh Nigam said in a release.
As per the prescribed procedure, any student organisation desiring to hold an event on the University Campus is required to obtain prior permission from the authority through the Dean, Students' Welfare. However, in this case, no prior permission was obtained which is a violation of the existing norms. Though the event passed off peacefully, the University has asked for the report from the Security wing on the event for taking further necessary action, the Registrar said.
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On receiving the information about the screening of the documentary, the security team and the Dean, Students' Welfare rushed to the venue and requested the organisers to stop the screening of the documentary. However, the organisers did not accede to this request and continued the screening of the documentary in presence of a few students, he said. He further said there has been no untoward incident and the campus is quiet and peaceful.
Earlier, some members of ABVP at UoH complained to the varsity's Registrar in this regard and demanded necessary action against the organisers.
A police official said they have so far not received any complaint over the matter. The "Fraternity Movement" in a Twitter post on January 21 had said that the BBC documentary was screened by "Fraternity Movement- HCU unit." UoH, is also known as Hyderabad Central University (HCU). "BBC documentary "India: The Modi Question" which was removed from YouTube screened in HCU by Fraternity Movement- HCU unit," the tweet said.
The Centre had issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the controversial BBC documentary "India: The Modi Question". The two-part BBC documentary, which claims it investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the state, has been trashed by the Ministry of External Affairs as a "propaganda piece" that lacked objectivity and reflected a "colonial mindset".
