Hyderabad
A day after a student group screened the controversial documentary of BBC on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and another rival student group retaliated by screening the movie “Kashmir Files” on the campus of University of Hyderabad (UoH), the university authorities on Friday said they had counselled both the groups and requested them not to create tension in the otherwise peaceful campus.
An official spokesperson of the UoH said the dean of students’ welfare had counselled the student groups and issued an appeal to not to do any screening of films in view of the law and order issue.
The spokesperson, quoting university registrar Devesh Nigam, said the student groups were requested to maintain peace and tranquillity on the campus in view of the forthcoming semester-end examinations starting next week.
“We have come to know that one of the student groups held the screening of the film in one of the hostels. There are no untoward incidents. The campus is absolutely peaceful,” the spokesperson said.
The screenings of the documentary and the feature film by the Student Federation of India and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) respectively late on Thursday triggered mild tension on the campus of the university.
The SFI posted on the Facebook that it had organised screening of the documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ on the Republic Day and it was watched by more than 400 students, despite the attempts by the ABVP to create unrest and the administration to disrupt the screening.
“SFI-HCU salutes the student community who have stood for freedom of expression and campus democracy,” it said.
As a counter to the SFI programme, the ABVP organised screening of ‘The Kashmir Files’ based on the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir due to killings by Pakistan-backed terrorists.
The university security authorities tried to prevent the ABVP for not allowing the equipment to screen the movie, resulting in protest by the student group at the main entrance.
Earlier, on January 21, a student group had organised a screening of BBC documentary without permission from university authorities. However, no police case was registered, the university spokesperson said.
