NEW DELHI: Indian college students are defying a ban on a BBC program inspecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s previous, regardless of arrests and makes an attempt by authorities to stop them from organizing screenings.

The two-part program, “India: The Modi Question,” examines claims about Modi’s position within the 2002 riots in Gujarat that left greater than 1,000 useless, most of them Muslims.

Modi was serving as chief minister of the western state when the violence broke out.

The authorities banned the documentary over the weekend utilizing emergency powers underneath data know-how legal guidelines, however college students continued to prepare screenings throughout the nation.

At least 13 college students of Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi had been detained for twenty-four hours on Wednesday, after they tried to indicate the documentary at their campus. 

“We were handed over to the police by the proctor of Jamia Islamia University. On Friday, the Jamia authorities shut down all the facilities for students,” one of many arrested, Azeez Shareef from the Students Federation of India, advised Arab News.

“We grew up with a certain idea of India, with secular values and democratic principles, but this government has attacked everything.”

Earlier this week, authorities lower off electrical energy at Jawaharlal Nehru University when college students gathered to display screen the documentary.

“We wanted to screen the documentary so that youth can form their own opinion,” mentioned Aishe Ghosh, president of Jawaharlal Nehru Students Union.

“The new generation does not remember what happened in Gujarat in 2002 because they were too young. But when we see today’s reality, it’s important for the young generation to make the link that the same political party that is in power in Delhi was responsible in some form or another in manufacturing a pogrom in the state of Gujarat.”

She added that universities are the place college students ought to have “space to debate and discuss and differ.”

As the federal government ban means the movie can’t be streamed or shared on social media — and Twitter and YouTube have complied with a authorities request to take down hyperlinks to the documentary — college students argue there isn’t any specific ban on screenings.

“Where is the order to ban the documentary?” mentioned Abhisek Nandan, president of the Student Union of the University of Hyderabad, which has organized a screening and dialogue on the primary episode of this system.

“The documentary carries the truth about Gujarati riots that journalists and civil society groups have been telling for the last 20 years.”

Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party sees the British broadcaster’s movie as manipulation and an assault on India’s judicial system.

“A foreign power undermining the judicial system of India is not the right thing to do. The entire episode of the Gujarat riot has minutely been scrutinized by all, including the judiciary,” BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Mittal advised Arab News.

In 2013, a courtroom in Gujarat discovered Modi in a roundabout way liable for the riots. The Supreme Court upheld the ruling in 2022.

“The documentary is an assault on the judicial system of this country. That’s why it is not permitted,” Mittal mentioned.

“The country is right in not allowing manipulation by a foreign power.”

The movie may undermine Modi’s status at a time when India is chairing the Group of 20 largest economies and can host the G20 summit this yr.

“It’s obvious that PM Modi realized that the documentary had the potential to hurt his reputation at a time when he could least afford it,” political analyst Sanjay Kapoor advised Arab News.  

“For him, the G20 platform provided him an opportunity to showcase himself as a world leader, and he didn’t want his image to be sullied as someone who was complicit in the Gujarat genocide.”