Thiruvananthapuram : In a bold defiance to the Central government, the DYFI and SFI announced screening of the BBC documentary “India – The Modi Question” in Kerala campuses. The announcement came from DYFI State President V Wasif in his Facebook post. The SFI leadership said the documentary will be screened at Calicut University Wednesday. The screening comes in the wake of Central government’s ban on the documentary. The second series of the two-part documentary indicts Narendra Modi for facilitating violence against Muslims in 2002 Gujarat riots.
The documentary recounts the communal violence that convulsed Gujarat State for three days from 28 Feb through 2 March of 2002. According to the documentary, the violence killed 2000, the vast majority of who were Muslims. The first part of the documentary provides corroboration of calculated and coordinated character of 2002 ”riots” and then government’s culpability for the killings. The BBC documentary draws heavily on the UK government’s hitherto secret report. At one point, the quote from the report in the documentary says VHP and their ilk could never “have inflicted so much damage without the climate of impunity created by the State govt” for which it asserts, “Narendra Modi is directly responsible.”
Following instructions from the Modi government, Twitter and YouTube pulled down the documentary. The ban uses Sec 16 of the IT Act of 2021, that allows a content to be barred if found detrimental to the integrity, security or diplomatic relations of the country.
Meanwhile, University Registrar issued order banning the documentary from being screened on JNU campus tomorrow. The JNU University in its circular urged cancellation of tomorrow’s screening program, citing there was no permission obtained for doing that. The circular also said the documentary should not be screened and allowed to disrupt the peace on campus.
The circular also warns of strict action if the order is violated. The ban comes even as the documentary is slated to be screened on campus at 9 am tomorrow morning.
