JNU stops screening of Muzaffarnagar riots documentary claiming no permission was sought

The Times of India

JNU stops screening of Muzaffarnagar riots documentary claiming no permission was sought
Shreya Roy Chowdhury,TNN | Aug 4, 2015, 11.06 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Now Jawaharlal Nehru University has scuttled the screening of Muzaffarnagar Abhi Baki Hai.

Incensed by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's stopping the screening of Muzaffarnagar Abhi Baki Hai at Kirori Mal College on Saturday, August 1, Democratic Students' Federation of Jawaharlal Nehru University had planned to screen at the dhaba at Godavari Hostel on Tuesday night. Already in Delhi to protest, members of the Film and Television Institute of India's students' union had also been invited to attend. The documentary on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, made by FTII alumnus Nakul Singh Sawhney, had been screen -- DSF member and former JNU Students' Union presiden V Lenin Kumar says "released" -- in JNU a year ago.

"Withing one year it has become impossible to screen it!" says Kumar who also alleges that the "administration has a problem with this specific film." "It has never happened before that we haven't been allowed to screen. But here the guards are saying that that the administration hasn't permitted and they won't let us have power. About 20-30 guards are standing in front of the screen." Students who'd gathered started a protest at around 9:20 pm, 20 minutes after the screening was scheduled to begin.

Vice-chancellor SK Sopory says the posters announcing the screening "had no names of JNU students on them." "Also, to the best of my knowledge, no permission has been taken from anybody. We don't care if the film is good or bad and we allow them to do it as long as they fill up the form and take permission. JNU has been an open space. They can seek permission and we'll take it up from that point."

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