Bolpur: Visva Bharati University's unit of the Democratic Students' Association (DSA) was not allowed to screen the Gujarat riots documentary "India: The Modi Question" by the police administration and security guards of Visva-Bharati on Thursday.
The DSA earlier announced that they will screen the BBC documentary on the Prime Minister on the campus in West Bengal's Birbhum district during Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to the university for the convocation ceremony on Thursday. They were supposed to screen the documentary at Ratanpally at 6 pm on Thursday.
A huge police force was deployed ahead of the demonstration, Visva Bharati authorities also deployed security guards. Incidentally, since the Chancellor of Visva-Bharati is Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, the decision to screen the banned documentary in the presence of the Union Minister caused an uproar.
Rajnath Singh and Union Minister of State for Education Subhash Sarkar visited Santiniketan on a two-day visit. The ministers alighted from the helicopter at Sriniketan grounds and proceeded to Rathindra Guest House. Later, they watched 'Bhanusingher Padavali' performed by the students of Sangeet Bhavan at the Lipika theatre of the university.
The BBC made a documentary has been 'banned' by the central government. The documentary has since been removed from various social sites. The DSA had announced that they would screen the documentary 'India: The Modi Question' at Ratanpally in Santiniketan on Thursday.
The Chancellor of Visva-Bharati is Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And while the two Union ministers are at Santiniketan, a banned documentary on the Gujarat riots will be screened nearby. As soon as this news spread, the administration was on war footing to find a solution.
Visva Bharati's Democratic Student Association member Shubo Nath said, "We had earlier announced to show 'India: The Modi Question.' But, the police did not allow us to show it. First, they resorted to several pressure tactics to prevent the screening. Later, the police were deployed and Visva Bharati's security guards did not allow us to bring the display materials. The truth will come out, that's why the administration has so many headaches. But we will not give up. We will show this documentary again on a fixed date."
