Current Events > India's government scrambles to block film about Modi's role in anti-Muslim riot

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https://www.npr.org/2023/01/25/1151359378/modi-question-bbc-documentary-india-censorship-2002-gujarat-riots

Days after India blocked a BBC documentary that examines Prime Minister Narendra Modi's role during 2002 anti-Muslim riots and banned people from sharing it online, authorities are scrambling to halt screenings of the program at colleges and universities and restrict clips of it on social media, a move that has been decried by critics as an assault on press freedom. Tensions escalated in the capital, New Delhi, on Wednesday at Jamia Millia University, where a student group said it planned to screen the banned documentary, prompting dozens of police equipped with tear gas and riot gear to gather outside campus gates. Police, some in plain clothes, scuffled with protesting students and detained at least half a dozen, who were taken away in a van. "This is the time for Indian youth to put up the truth which everybody knows. We know what the prime minister is doing to the society," said Liya Shareef, 20, a geography student and member of the student group Fraternity Movement. Jawaharlal Nehru University in the capital cut off power and the internet on its campus on Tuesday before the documentary was scheduled to be screened by a students' union. Authorities said it would disturb peace on campus, but students nonetheless watched the documentary on their laptops and mobile phones after sharing it on messaging services such as Telegram and WhatsApp. The documentary has caused a storm at other Indian universities too. Authorities at the University of Hyderabad, in India's south, began a probe after a student group showed the banned documentary earlier this week. The first part of the program, released last week by the BBC for its U.K. audiences, revives the most controversial episode of Modi's political career when he was the chief minister of western Gujarat state in 2002. It focuses on anti-Muslim riots in which more than 1,000 people were killed.

In recent years, India's Muslim minority has been at the receiving end of violence from Hindu nationalists, emboldened by a prime minister who has mostly stayed mum on such attacks since he was first elected in 2014. The ban has set off a wave of criticism from opposition parties and rights groups that slammed it as an attack against press freedom. It also drew more attention to the documentary, sparking scores of social media users to share clips on WhatsApp, Telegram and Twitter. "You can ban, you can suppress the press, you can control the institutions ... but the truth is the truth. It has a nasty habit of coming out," Rahul Gandhi, a leader of the opposition Congress party, told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. Mahua Moitra, a lawmaker from the Trinamool Congress political party, on Tuesday tweeted a new link to the documentary after a previous one was taken down. "Good, bad, or ugly we decide. Govt doesn't tell us what to watch," Moitra said in her tweet, which was still up Wednesday morning. Critics say press freedom in India has declined in recent years and the country fell eight places, to 150 out of 180 countries, in last year's Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders. It accuses Modi's government of silencing criticism on social media, particularly on Twitter, a charge senior leaders of the governing party have denied. Modi's government has regularly pressured Twitter to restrict or ban content it deems critical of the prime minister or his party. Last year, it threatened to arrest Twitter staff in the country over their refusal to ban accounts run by critics after implementing sweeping new regulations for technology and social media companies.