New Delhi: The Rajasthan Central University in Ajmer suspended at least 11 students – most of whom are Muslims – for watching the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question that is critical of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots
The students were suspended from both academics and the hostel for 14 days on Friday, January 27, following a proctorial enquiry that was constituted soon after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad released a list of 24 students who allegedly watched the documentary and demanded action against them.
Most students who faced action are postgraduate students who alleged that the university authorities buckled under pressure from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated students body, ABVP, which “created a ruckus” on Thursday evening and forcibly tried to enter the hostel rooms of those who allegedly watched the BBC documentary.
The university on Friday also issued an order enforcing “a ban” on any form of screening of the BBC documentary and asked all its department heads to “sensitise the students in this regard.” Curiously, the order also added that the ban was being enforced to “maintain law and order and safety of the student’s fraternity”.
On January 21, it was reported that the Narendra Modi government asked both YouTube and Twitter to remove content with links to the BBC documentary, to which the two platforms agreed.
One of the suspended students who didn’t want to be named, however, told The Wire that the order was issued only after ABVP activists created a tense atmosphere in the campus and raised slogans like “Jai Shri Ram” and “Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaron saalon ko (Shoot the traitors of the country)” – a slogan that has been in vogue among saffron activists since the 2020 anti-Muslim riots in Delhi – at the basketball court on Thursday late evening.
The student said that a group of friends had circulated a poster in their WhatsApp status messages inviting students to collectively watch the documentary on their mobile phones on Thursday evening. “We did not screen the film on a projector. A few students came and watched the documentary on their mobile phones at the university’s post office,” he said.