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On plan of BBC documentary screening at TISS, Mumbai BJP chief says...
Earlier this week, Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF), a student collective at TISS, announced the screening of the documentary on campus on Saturday in solidarity with students from Delhi.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Mumbai president Ashish Shelar has sought police action against students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) after they announced their plans to screen the controversial BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ on the campus at 7pm on Saturday. “The police should act or else we will have to step in. It is a bogus documentary. And those determined to show this documentary in public are escalating tensions. It will lead to law-and-order problems. TISS should stop this immediately," Shelar tweeted.
Reportedly, the saffron party also demonstrated outside the TISS campus against the screening of documentary.
Earlier this week, Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF), a student collective at TISS, announced the screening of the documentary on campus on Saturday in solidarity with students from Delhi. Meanwhile, the administration on Friday denied permission for the documentary screening on campus. “This is to inform all the students that the institute has not permitted any such screening and gatherings which may disturb the academic environment and jeopardise the peace and harmony in our campuses", states the advisory from TISS.
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Students have also been advised against indulging in any such activities in contravention to this advisory.
This comes amid unrest being reported from several universities over the same issue. The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi witnessed stone pelting on Tuesday after electricity was allegedly disrupted to stop the screening; Jamia on Wednesday saw similar chaos. Meanwhile, the documentary was screened at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata on Thursday.
The BBC documentary has sparked a fresh row in the nation after the government, earlier this month, denounced it and described it as a “propaganda piece” that is designed to push a discredited narrative. The controversy further deepened after links of the documentary were pulled down from various social media platforms, and the opposition attacked the government on “freedom of speech”.
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The Congress unit in Kerala on Thursday screened the documentary in Thiruvananthapuram, while the grand old party's student wing NSUI also screened the documentary in Chandigarh.
Last week, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak distanced himself from the BBC documentary series, saying he "doesn't agree with the characterisation" of his Indian counterpart.
(With inputs from bureau)
