Ten central university students in Rajasthan suspended over BBC documentary on PM Modi screening

Talking to The Indian Express, a suspended student said, “On January 26, some students had put up posters announcing that they would watch the documentary near the campus post office. So some of us gathered and watched it on our phones, not even on a laptop or a screen. Soon security arrived and the police were also called. Subsequently, students associated with the ABVP came and started shouting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and other slogans and questioned us over the documentary. So around 8 pm, we dispersed.”

ABVP president for CURAJ, Vikash Pathak, said, “On January 25, some students associated with the SFI and NSUI had advertised that they would screen the banned documentary on 26th at 7 pm. On 26th, around 40-50 students gathered and started watching it in the public on some devices, including laptops.”

“Some students tried to reason with them but they didn’t listen. Then the university administration, and even the police arrived and talked to them, but they started arguing with them too,” Pathak claimed. “Our only point was, when the documentary has been banned, why were they watching it in public?” he said.

However, the suspended students claimed “that was not the end of it. Messages started circulating on some WhatsApp groups asking students to gather at the basketball court.”

In the videos that have surfaced, students are seen sloganeering, ‘Pukaarti Ma Bharti, khoon se tilak karo, goliyon se aarti’ (Ma Bharti calls; apply tilak with blood and perform aarti with blood), and “Desh ke gaddaron, Bharat chhoro (Traitors of India, leave India).”

“Even the security people stood there as mute spectators. Around 10 pm, they (ABVP members) marched to our hostel. And while students from one hostel aren’t allowed to enter another, the ABVP members from all hostels barged into our hostel, sporting saffron flags and their faces covered. They also shut down the lights, shouted slogans and kicked on doors to threaten us,” a student said. However, no students were assaulted.

Pathak claimed, “Nothing like that happened. They are merely trying to digress from the accusations against them. They should own up to their mistake.”

CURAJ authorities, however, said that the students were not suspended over the documentary screening, “The action wasn’t taken over screening of the documentary. It was a normal, routine, disciplinary action taken against these students, which is a routine activity of an academic institution.”

As per the suspension orders, action has been taken under clauses 3.3 and 3.5 of the University’s Ordinance 47, which deals with Students Discipline. Clause 3 defines indiscipline. Within this, 3.3 states “disobeying the instructions of teachers or the authorities,” and 3.5 states “demonstrating in late hours at places other than designated sites.”

Students also alleged that the university administration suspended the students on the basis of the ABVP list, while no one from the ABVP has been suspended.

People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said that among 10 students from different disciplines who were suspended, “eight are Muslim, one is Christian and one is Hindu. The PUCL is clear that no screening of any film happened on the 26th of January 2023. And the question of individual viewing on mobiles is a private matter and comes within the right to privacy of the students.”

Calling the university’s action “communally selective”, PUCL, in a letter to CURAJ Vice-Chancellor Anand Bhalerao, said that “the students were never heard. No enquiry gave them a hearing and without the students being given a right to hearing and without being issued show cause notices, they were expelled for 15 days from the university and hostel.”

Demanding that the suspension orders be withdrawn “immediately,” PUCL national president Kavita Srivastava termed the action “an egregious abuse of power by the university authorities. The authorities should be protecting and defending the freedom of speech and expression of the students as a part of the right to education and critical thinking.