ABVP urges Centre to cancel Umar Khalid documentary in NLSIU

Bengaluru: The RSS-affiliated student organisation ABVP has sought the Centre's intervention for the permanent cancellation of a proposed screening of a documentary on jailed activist Umar Khalid at NLSUI here. It also urged the Union government to order a high-level inquiry into the National Law School of India University (NLSUI) administration over the proposed event.

In a statement on Monday, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) Bengaluru said it had sent representations to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Education Minister Pralhad Joshi and Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal, seeking their intervention.

The screening of the documentary, "Prisoner No. 626710 is Present", directed by Lalit Vachani, was recently postponed by the organisers citing security and administrative reasons. ABVP alleged that the delay was a "stalling tactic" to allow public outrage to subside.

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ABVP calls documentary ‘political propaganda’

"ABVP maintains that educational institutions of national repute cannot serve as platforms for political propaganda centered around an individual linked to anti-national slogans during the 2016 JNU controversy, Afzal Guru commemorations, and provocative mobilization during the CAA-NRC protests and 2020 Delhi riots," it said.

The student organisation urged the Centre to direct the NLSIU management to permanantly revoke all permissions for the documentary to be filmed, screened or promoted on campus under any pretext. It also sought a comprehensive inquiry into the NLSIU administration and organising committee over the granting of permission for the event, alleging that formal complaints by student bodies had been ignored.

ABVP further called for strict guidelines to ensure that infrastructure in central and national universities funded by public resources was not used for what it termed "anti-national narratives" under the guise of academic freedom. The organisation said open discussion and academic freedom were constitutional rights, but claimed that freedom of expression could not be prioritised over national security, sovereignty and institutional integrity.