SRINAGAR, India — When the lights suddenly went out, the crowd of young people turned on their smartphone flashlights. They were directed towards the seat of a motorcycle, where student activist Aishe Ghosh challenged them.

“They will close one screen, we will open hundreds,” he shouted.

The students had gathered at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, the Indian capital, for an outdoor screening of a new BBC documentary criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his role in the deadly 2002 riots in Gujarat when he was the head of the western state. Minister.

After the power outage (Ghosh blames the university administration, which has not commented publicly), students streamed the film on their phones and laptops, either via VPN or by sharing proxy links to archived footage via encrypted apps.

The authorities in India, the world’s largest democracy, have done everything possible to prevent the people of the country from seeing the film since the first part aired in Britain last week, invoking emergency powers to order the removal of any clips or links that are posted on social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter. For Indians appalled by what they see as growing authoritarianism under Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, viewing the documentary has become a symbol of protest.

Students protest outside the Jamia Millia Islamia university in New Delhi on Wednesday.Manish Swarup/AP

Many of India’s youth do not remember the riots, which killed more than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims. Modi denies being complicit in the attacks, and India’s Supreme Court upheld a ruling last year that he should be cleared of all charges.

More than half of India’s 1.4 billion people are under the age of 30 and looming as a key political force in the 2024 general election and beyond, Ghosh told NBC News.

“It is very important for the BJP to control these minds,” he said.

Arindam Bagchi, spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, called the BBC film, «India: The Modi Question,» a «propaganda piece designed to push a particular discredited narrative» and said it reflected a «colonial mentality.» .

In a statement, the British broadcaster said the film had been «rigorously investigated» and the Indian government had refused to comment on the allegations.

The first part of the documentary deals with Modi’s political career before he became prime minister. Gujarat was rocked by riots in early 2002 when Hindu mobs, blaming Muslims for the deaths of 59 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire, retaliated against Muslim communities.

Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Modi has denied complicity in the deadly 2002 riots in the state of Gujarat, where he was prime minister at the time. T. Narayan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

According to the film, British officials said the violence had «the hallmarks of ethnic cleansing» and that Modi, as prime minister, was «directly responsible» for allowing it to happen.

Harsh Mander, who quit his job as a civil servant to become a human rights activist after the riots in Gujarat, said they «showed us a very different India from the one we had promised ourselves with independence» in 1947.

«Today’s generation needs to see what happened in 2002 and make an informed decision,» he added. “Is this the India you want?”

For years, Modi was banned from traveling to the United States over his role in the riots, only being invited back after he became prime minister in 2014. The second half of the BBC documentary, which aired in Great Brittany this week, focuses on her leadership. since then.

Critics say Modi has promoted discrimination against India’s Muslim minority and crushed dissent, especially since his re-election in 2019. Some journalists have been barred from traveling abroad and government demands to remove content on Twitter have been they have shot Last year, India fell to 150th place out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday that the United States supports press freedom and other rights that strengthen democracies.

“This is a point that we make in our relationships around the world,” he told a regular briefing. «It’s certainly a point that we’ve made in India as well.»

Opposition lawmakers in India have also backed down, sharing links to the documentary that have since stopped working.

“I am sorry, I have not been elected to represent the largest democracy in the world to accept censorship,” said Mahua Moitra, a member of Parliament for the centre-left All India Trinamool Congress. said on Twitter. «Here’s the link. Check it out while you can.»

But Kanchan Gupta, a senior adviser to India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, called the film «anti-India crap» and said YouTube and Twitter had complied with government orders to block its release.

Tensions rose at the university after a group of students said they planned to screen a banned documentary examining the role of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots, prompting dozens of police equipped with tear gas and equipment. riot police gathered outside the campus gates.
Jamia Millia Islamia students defied warnings from the university not to show the BBC film.Manish Swarup/AP

Both platforms have struggled with free speech issues in India. Twitter sued the Indian government last year over sweeping regulatory changes that give officials greater power to demand the removal of online content they deem threatening to the state, the same changes now used to censor the BBC documentary. The future of the lawsuit is uncertain under the company’s new owner, Elon Musk.

“First thing I heard,” Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, said on Twitter this week when asked about the censorship of the BBC film in India. «It’s not possible for me to fix every aspect of Twitter around the world overnight, while still running Tesla and SpaceX, among other things.»

Kunal Majumder, the Indian representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said officials had weaponized an emergency provision in the laws, known as the Information Technology Rules, against legitimate journalism.

“The government has reacted to the documentary by describing it as propaganda and [part of a] colonial mentality,» he said. «How does that qualify as an emergency?»

‘We created a plan’

Nivedya PT, a student from New Delhi, was 2 years old when the riots broke out in Gujarat. She and others defied warnings from her university, Jamia Millia Islamia, not to show the BBC film because «it’s very important for us to know our history,» she said.

“You can’t just arbitrarily block a documentary saying it’s propaganda. That’s not right,» Nivedya said. “We have freedom of expression in this country and we can watch any documentary and movie we want. So we created a plan.»

The screening was set for Wednesday night. That morning, Nivedya said, university staff chased her across campus and confiscated her phone. In the afternoon, she and three other students were taken away by the police.

Students staged a protest near campus that night demanding Nivedya’s release and clashed with police officers equipped with tear gas and riot gear. Five students from the protest were also detained, he said.

The campus remained closed the next day, students told NBC News, and police have maintained a heavy presence in the area.

Nivedya’s arrest came on the eve of Republic Day, a national holiday marking the anniversary of the official adoption of India’s Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.

“They are depriving us of our fundamental rights,” Nivedya lamented after being released. «I’m not sure how democratic India is anymore.»