As campuses across India resisted the ban on BBC's controversial documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, three to four students from Students' Federation of India (SFI) of Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi (JMI) have been detained by the police ahead of the screening of the documentary today, January 25.
The students' association had earlier shared posters for the screening of the documentary India: The Modi Question at 6:00 pm today, January 25. "Since then, we got calls from proctors saying we cannot call for any meeting or gathering without prior permission. The proctor has given permission to police to enter the campus. So far, the police have detained three to four people from SFI including the SFI secretary. They also took the phone of one member before detaining her," said the SFI President at JMI.
Students have called this act a "crackdown on their freedom of speech" similar to the crackdown three years ago during an anti-CAA protest carried out by students of the university.
Reports from other universities
Earlier, several students, who gathered at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students' Union office for a screening of the documentary on Tuesday, January 24 claimed the varsity administration cut power and internet to stop the event and staged a protest after stones were thrown on them.
Similarly, a section of students at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) screened the BBC documentary on its campus on January 21, 2023, prompting the university authorities to seek a report. The university administration stated that no prior notice or permission was taken before the event.
The government had on Friday directed social media platforms Twitter and YouTube to block links to the documentary titled India: The Modi Question. The Ministry of External Affairs has trashed the documentary as a "propaganda piece" that lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset. However, opposition parties have slammed the government's move to block access to the documentary.
The two-part BBC documentary India: The Modi Question claims it investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Modi was the Chief Minister of the state. The documentary has not been screened in India.
