The Kerala unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday tried to disrupt the screening of the controversial BBC documentary “India: The Modi Question” and clashed with the police within the state capital. Police fired a number of rounds of water cannons and lots of staff suffered minor accidents, stated a senior official including efficient intervention of police prevented staff from storming the screening web site at Poojapura grounds. The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), youth wing of the ruling CPI(M), organised the screening even because the BJP opposed it vehemently.
The BJP staff marched to the screening web site and when police blocked them, they tried to take away the barricades forcing police to fireside a number of rounds of water cannons. Later, the employees clashed with police however organisers stated that the screening was unaffected regardless of protests. Similar protests have been reported from Palakkad and Wayanad districts, stated police. Taking a leaf out of the DYFI, Youth Congress has additionally determined to display the documentary at selective areas all through the state on January 26, Republic Day.
The documentary discovered help in Youth Congress chief Anil Okay Antony, senior chief A Okay Antony’s son. “Despite differences with the BJP, the BBC, a state-sponsored channel with a long history of prejudices, and of Jack Straw, brain behind the Iraq war, over Indian institutions is setting a dangerous precedence, will undermine our sovereignty,” he tweeted. The Youth Congress, nevertheless, rejected his tweets.
“That is his personal comment and we reject it. We will go ahead with the screening on the Republic Day. We will approach the party to take action against him,” stated Youth Congress chief Rejil Makkutty.
The 59-minute documentary is in regards to the 2002 Gujarat riots when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state’s chief minister. The Indian authorities has directed social media and video-sharing corporations to take away the documentary or hyperlinks to it from their platforms.
The ministry of exterior affairs had dubbed the documentary as a “propaganda material that lacked objectivity and guided by a colonial mindset” however the channel stood its floor.
The BJP opposed the screening strongly and made a number of pleas to Kerala chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to not enable the documentary.
“It is a move to insult the country and its judicial process. Some people want to whip an unfortunate incident happened two decades ago to create unrest. It will whip up communal passion again and Gujarat did not witness a communal riot in last two decades,” stated celebration state president Okay Surendran.
Minister of state for exterior affairs V Muraleedharan additionally requested the state authorities to not give permission for screening including that the best court docket of the nation had already given a remaining verdict in 2013.
