High drama in Presidency University during screening of BBC documentary on Gujarat riots

KOLKATA: High drama marked the screening of the BBC documentray on 2002 Gujarat riots at the College Street campus of Presidency University here on Friday as there was power outage for some time. More than 50 of the university's students watched the controversial film at the time.

They alleged that the electricity disruption was a sabotage by the university administration and the venue was shifted from the sprawling badminton court to the students' common room. The screening began at 4.30 pm but there was another power cut at around 5.30 pm and a number of students took out a protest march in the campus. They shouted slogans like 'Halla Bol' and 'We want azadi from communalism, hatred, dictatorship'.

Power supply was restored at the University common room at around 6 pm and the screening resumed. The screening was organised by Students Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the CPI-M, a day after it hosted a similar show via projector at Jadavpur University campus.

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A Presidency University SFI spokesperson said "The authorities apparently tried to stop the screening (of the documentary) but had to bow down to the students' collective might and give up. Presidency has always promoted liberal views. We will not allow a break in that tradition." A university official said the power disruption was due to technical reasons and the authorities did not have anything to do with the students' activities in the common room.

On Thursday more than 100 students watched the documentary at Jadavpur University and the SFI said neither the police nor the institute authorities interfered with the screening. The Centre has recently issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the documentary 'India: The Modi Question', which claims to have investigated certain aspects relating to the 2002 riots in Gujarat when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of the western state. The Centre has also ordered YouTube to take down copies of the document.