Students at Mumbai's TISS screen BBC documentary on PM Modi despite warning

The Centre had last week directed social media platforms Twitter and YouTube to block links to the documentary "India: The Modi Question".

Mumbai, Jan 28: A group of students watched the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Mumbai's Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). This comes despite a strict warning by the institute against holding the screening.

"It is with utmost seriousness we note that some students, through a group, are engaged in activities contravening the advisory issued on 27th January regarding the screening of a BBC Documentary forbidden by the Government and attempting to mobilise and trigger students to do the same", the TISS administration had saidin its circular.

"We caution the students to understand that any such acts by any student or groups violating the instructions issued on 27th January 2023 and engaging in any activities leading to disturbance of peace and harmony will be held responsible for the same and will be dealt with duly under relevant institutional rules on the matter", it added.

The Centre had last week directed social media platforms Twitter and YouTube to block links to the documentary "India: The Modi Question".

The Ministry of External Affairs has trashed the documentary as a "propaganda piece" that lacks objectivity and reflects a colonial mindset.

Meanwhile, the students' association at Pune's Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) said on Saturday that they had screened the documentary on the campus on January 26. "On January 26, we screened the banned BBC documentary 'The Modi Question' at FTII. Throughout history, the banning of literature, music, and in recent times, media, has been a sign of a crumbling society," it said in a statement.

"The act of scrutiny should be welcomed by our elected representatives. Instead, they quickly tag it as false propaganda and try to shove it under the rug. They should know that the sure-fire way for something to be watched is to ban it," it further said.

Over the past few days, students at many educational institutes, including the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and Ambedkar University in the national capital, have tried to screen the controversial BBC documentary.

In Kerala, both the Congress and the CPI(M) screened the film at several places.