The administration of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has issued multiple circulars to its students after a group of students planned to screen the BBC documentary India: The Modi Question. After an initial circular issued on Friday, January 27, the institute issued another circular on Saturday which said, “It is with utmost seriousness we note that some students, through a group, are engaged in activities contravening the advisory issued on January 27 regarding the screening of a BBC documentary forbidden by the government and attempting to mobilise and trigger students to do the same.
The circular further warned that students violating the previous advisory prohibiting students from gathering and screening the documentary “will be dealt with duly under relevant institutional rules on the matter.” The initial advisory prohibited the screening, expressing fear that it may “disturb the academic environment and jeopardise the peace and harmony in our campuses.” It also warned against gathering to protest similar developments in other universities. TISS has its main campus in Mumbai, and off-campus centres in Hyderabad, Guwahati and Tuljapur.
According to reports, TISS Students’ Union leader Pratik Permey said that the association had not planned to screen the documentary. He also said that the Progressive Students Forum (PSF) had earlier organised the screening and that the Students’ Union was not a part of it.
The PSF organised the screening on Saturday and more than 200 students had turned up to watch the documentary, according to Hindustan Times. The president of PSF, Ramdas Prini Srinivas, said that the institute refused to provide a projector to screen the documentary so they screened it on a laptop in the institute’s quadrangle. As more students began to gather to watch the documentary, it was reportedly screened on nine laptops.
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 the film 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.