JNU BBC Documentary Row: JNU is once again in headlines. Last night there was a lot of ruckus between the student organizations of JNU and there were reports of stone pelting. Left organizations in JNU were adamant about the telecast of a BBC documentary made by targeting Prime Minister Modi. There was a whole controversy in the campus late last night regarding this matter.
Actually BBC had made a documentary keeping PM Modi as the target. The government banned this documentary from being screened in India. The seriousness of the matter can be gauged from the fact that the Ministry of External Affairs of India, in a press conference, described it as a colonial mentality-driven and biased documentary.
1. Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said that we will say that this is an attempt to run a narrative of a special type of propaganda against India. This documentary shows that the people and organizations associated with it have a special kind of thinking because it does not have neutrality about the facts and the subject. It is driven by a colonial mindset.
2. After this, the opposition parties became an attacker on the BJP government. The Congress on Saturday (21 January) criticized the government for ‘censoring’ a BBC documentary and said that Prime Minister Modi should remember ‘Raj Dharma’.
3. After this, on Monday (January 24), the student organization of JNU Left parties took the lead. Pamphlets were distributed on Monday regarding the screening of this documentary in the campus. JNUSU Students Union President Aishe Ghosh also shared the poster of the controversial documentary and wrote that this documentary will be shown on January 24 at 9 pm.
4. Acting after sharing this poster of Aishi Ghosh, the JNU administration issued an advisory and banned any such program.
5. The JNU administration said in an advisory that any such unauthorized program can disturb the peace of the university campus. Students are advised not to do such controversial programmes. And, all the students who have made such a schedule should also cancel it. Failure to do so, disciplinary action will be taken against those students.
6. Despite this, left student organizations gathered in the campus under the leadership of student union president Aishe Ghosh and announced to screen the documentary. On this matter, the administration allegedly cut off the electricity at that place.
7. Left student organizations shared the link of the documentary on power cut, and while standing there, Aishi Ghosh spoke to the media about watching that documentary from mobile.
8. During this dispute, the Left organizations alleged that the ABVP, the opposition student organization there, pelted stones at them. However, JNU ABVP president Rohit said that his organization has no connection with the clash. It is the job of the administration to see that the atmosphere of the campus is right and the situation does not deteriorate.
9. Talking to the media, Aishi Ghosh said that we will do the screening. We do not accept this ban, he claimed that this film shows the truth and BJP is afraid that the truth will come out.
10. After this whole controversy, the left student organizations took out a foot march from the campus to the Basant Vihar police station and demonstrated. However, so far no response has come from the university administration in this entire controversy.
