Screening of “Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai” stalled, yet again

By NewsGram Staff Writer

The screening of a documentary on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots at the Visva Bharati University (VBU) was stalled by police midway into the show in Kolkata, claiming they were apprehensive of a communal clash, organizers said today.

According to Kasturi Basu, Kolkata Chapter convenor of COR, the documentary showing at the university in Santiniketan in West Bengal's Birbhum district yesterday was obstructed 45 minutes into its running time by the university's security guards and local police.

"In four venues in Mumbai, Madurai, Trichy and Shantiniketan, police (tipped off by unnamed sympathizers of the BJP) stopped screenings of the film citing the usual bogeys of 'law and order' or 'permissions'," said Sanjay Joshi, national convener, Cinema of Resistance, in a statement.

The pan-India screening was a mark of protest against the "recent hooliganism by ABVP (right wing students' body Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) goons" who "forcefully stalled" the screening in Delhi University's Kirori Mal College on August 1, organizers said. The screening was hindered in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) as well.

The documentary,"Muzaffarnagar Baaqi Hai" is made by Nakul Singh Sawhney and has been screened in at least 60 different venues across 50 cities in India on August 25 by Cinema of Resistance (COR), which promotes alternate cinema.