Visva Bharati students to screen BBC documentary during Rajnath Singh’s visit
The Left-affiliated Democratic Students Association has announced that it will screen the controversial BBC documentary on an open field adjacent to the Visva Bharati campus on Thursday evening, when defence minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to attend a cultural event at the university
A section of students at West Bengal’s Visva Bharati University announced on Wednesday that it will screen the controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, when defence minister Rajnath Singh visits the campus to attend the annual convocation.
The documentary was dismissed by the Indian government as “propaganda” and there was controversy over its screening on campuses in several states.
The Visva Bharati teachers and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders said Singh, accompanied by Union minister of state for education, Dr Subhas Sarkar, is scheduled to arrive at the campus on Thursday and leave on Friday after the convocation.
The Visva Bharati authorities, however, made no announcement regarding the defence minister’s visit. The circular it issued on Wednesday said the convocation ceremony for students who passed out in 2021 will be held at 9am on February 24.
Singh will be the representative of the Prime Minister, who is the chancellor of the state’s only central university that Rabindranath Tagore had set up in 1921 at Bolpur in Birbhum district.
The Left-affiliated Democratic Students Association announced on Wednesday that it will screen the documentary, India: The Modi Question, on an open field adjacent to the campus on Thursday evening, when Singh is scheduled to attend a cultural event at the university.
Shuvo Nath, a DSA member, told the local media that the screening was prescheduled and has nothing to do with Singh’s visit.
Dhruba Saha, president of the BJP’s Birbhum unit, said: “A Left radical outfit wants to screen the documentary during the Union minister’s visit. People are not influenced by such stunts.”
HT asked Visva Bharati spokesperson Mahua Banerjee whether the authorities would take any action to stop the screening but she did not give any reply.
Visva Bharati has been in news since 2018 when Bidyut Chakrabarty took over as vice-chancellor. The campus has witnessed a number of agitations following suspension of teachers and students.
The Calcutta high court recently said in an order that “stigmatic aspersions” led to the summary termination of service of Sudipta Bhattacharya, an economics professor in December last year. He is also the president of the teachers’ association.
On February 13, Visva-Bharati threatened to take disciplinary action against a student for challenging the institution’s claim on part of a land covered by Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen’s ancestral home on the campus. Sen has sought legal help in this matter.