Ahead of the screening of the erstwhile banned BBC documentary at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi, more than a dozen of students have been detained by the police while classes have been suspended on Wednesday. After Jawaharlal Nehru University, the Jamia unit of the left-affiliated Students' Federation of India (SFI) issued a poster informing the controversial documentary, 'India: The Modi Question', will be screened at 6 pm at the MCRC lawn gate no 8.
The university administration, however, said no permission has been sought for the screening of the documentary and "we will not allow" it. When contacted, a Jamia official said, "They did not ask for permission for the screening and we will not allow the screening. If students go out of their way to do something then strict action would be taken against them."
The screening at the Jamia campus comes a day after a similar screening was organised at the Jawaharlal Nehru University during which students claimed that power and internet were suspended and stones were thrown at them.
What happened at the JNU campus?
Several students, who gathered at the JNU students' union office for a screening of a controversial BBC documentary on Tuesday, claimed the varsity administration cut power and internet to stop the event and staged a protest after stones were thrown at them.
They claimed that they were attacked when they were watching the documentary on their mobile phones as the screening could not be held. Some alleged that the attackers were members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a charge the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated student body denied.
Later in the night, raising slogans of "Inqlaab Zinadabad" and against the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration, the protesting students marched to the Vasant Kunj police station to lodge a complaint against the "stone pelters".
There was no immediate official response from the JNU administration to the allegations and claims of the students. It had on Monday in an advisory said that the union had not taken its permission for the event and it should be cancelled, warning of strict disciplinary action.
