The Central University of Rajasthan (CURAJ) in Ajmer suspended ten students for allegedly screening the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question on Thursday, January 26. According to The Indian Express, the suspension order said that the students have been suspended for 14 days from academic activities and the hostel. Two students were suspended on January 27 while the remaining were suspended on the next day.
One of the suspended students told The Indian Express that some students had put up posters announcing that the documentary would be screened near the campus post office on January 26. On the announced date, a few students gathered near the venue and watched the documentary on their phones, the student said. Security guards reportedly arrived at the venue soon, and the police were also called. Students from the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also turned up and began raising slogans including Jai Shri Ram, the suspended student said, adding that due to the chaos, the students watching the documentary dispersed soon after. The screening was reportedly organised by Students Federation of India (SFI) and National Students Union of India (NSUI).
ABVP president in the university, Vishak Pathak, questioned why the students were watching the documentary after the Union government blocked links to the film. He said that some students, university officials and police tried to talk to the students who organised the screening to end it.
However, the suspended students said that there were WhatsApp messages circulating asking students to gather at the basketball court, and that a few students allegedly raised violent slogans. Students from the ABVP had allegedly barged into the hostels at 10 pm on the night of January 26. Their faces were allegedly covered while they were carrying saffron flags. While no student was harmed, the ABVP members had switched off the lights in the hostel and were raising violent slogans, a student alleged.
The university authorities on the other hand claimed that the students were not suspended over the documentary screening, and said that it was a “normal, routine, disciplinary action” against the students. However, suspended students alleged that ABVP had given them a list of students to be suspended and that the management took action based on that. Students further alleged that no ABVP member had been suspended.
Student groups at colleges across India have been organising screenings of the documentary to resist the censorship imposed by the BJP-led Union government. The Union government had termed the documentary as ‘propaganda’ and blocked links to it by invoking Section 16 of IT rules 2021 and Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000. The links to the documentary were blocked on January 20. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting also blocked the tweets that shared the link to the documentary.