An attempt by the Students’ Federation of India to screen the BBC’s controversial documentary ‘India: the Modi Question’ at the Chepauk campus of the University of Madras was foiled on Friday.
University Vice-Chancellor S. Gowri denied knowledge about SFI’s plans to screen the documentary. “The students did not ask us. They were sending WhatsApp messages and the heads of departments said no one had approached the university. Those who entered the campus were not our students either, we understand. Normally, students sit on the lawns and study,” Mr. Gowri said.
He said the university had a procedure to permit screening of films. “We have to ensure that a movie is for the benefit of students and then give permission. There seems to have been a request reveived for screening of a movie and permission to sit inside the centenary hall. Since the hall is under renovation, we refused permission,” he said.
According to him, the police came to the campus and enquired. “Some students seem to have come into the campus but they claim they went to the Institute of Distance Education. They then left after a while, I was told,” Mr. Gowri said.
The SFI, meanwhile, issued a statement that it was denied permission to screen the documentary on the campus. According to G. Selva, former secretary of the SFI, it planned to screen both the parts of the film in the University of Madras Chepauk campus.
The SFI said the aim was to show students who their Prime Minister was when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat during the post-Godhra riots.
The Union government has banned the screening of the documentary and also carrying of links in social media.
The SFI screened the films on Thursday at Victoria Students’ Hostel of Presidency College in Triplicane and had shared photos of the screening on social media.
Defying the ban
Members condemned the university for denying them permission to watch the film. They said they would defy the ban by watching the documentary on their laptops sitting on the lawns of the university and public places instead of classrooms.
Meanwhile, the film will be screened in the reading rooms of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) across the city, said Mr. Selva. On Friday, it was screened in their reading room in Parry’s Corner.
According to him, the police detained members on Thursday for organising a screening in Anna Nagar and they were released only after 5 p.m. “We will screen it for the public in our reading rooms as we did today in our office in Parry’s Corner. It is a document of how the Prime Minister violated the basic rights of the Constitution,” he said.
There was a proposal to screen the documentary across the State following the Chennai screenings, he added.
