Bolpur (West Bengal): After several crackdowns across the country on the screening of banned BBC documentary 'The Modi Question', which delves into the 2002 riots in Gujarat, students groups have decided to screen the documentary in Visva Bharati University premises in Bolpur, West Bengal on February 24. Questions about possible conflicts have begun surfacing in lieu of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visiting the university on the same day as the chief guest at the convocation ceremony.
The film based on Gujarat riots is slated to be screened by the students body, Democratic Students Association, within 300 meters of University campus, university officials said. Meanwhile, representatives of the student body noted that a possible clash between the two events was quite unlikely. "Visva-Bharati Democratic Students Association has already announced that 'The Modi Question' will be screened. The truth of the Gujarat riots has been shown in this documentary. That is why the government has banned it.
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The Defence Minister is coming to the convocation, our programme has nothing to do with him. We will screen this documentary at one end of Santiniketan. If the police want to suppress the truth, they will stop our screening" said DSA member Shubho Nath. The documentary has so far been screened at several educational institutions in India, including Jadavpur University, Presidency College and Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Rajnath Singh alongside Union Minister of State for Education Subhash Sarkar, West Bengal Governor CV Anand Bose and others will be on a two-day visit to Santiniketan on February 23. the Union Ministers are set to watch 'Bhanusingher Padabali' at Visva-Bharati's Lipika Theatre on February 23.
