BBC series screening: Left students stage protest at JNU against ABVP

Members of various Left organisations staged a protest at the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus on Thursday against the "hooliganism" of the RSS-affiliated ABVP, a day after students claimed that stones were hurled at them during the screening of the controversial BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The students, affiliated to the Students' Federation of India, Democratic Students' Federation, All India Students Association and other organisations raised slogans against the ABVP and held placards that read 'rise in the rage against ABVP hooliganism'.

"ABVP goons hurled stones at students gathered for the screening of the documentary. This is hooliganism," AISA JNU president Qasim said.

The protest was organised by the JNU Students' Union. The protestors marched from Ganga dhaba to Chandrabhaga hostel inside the JNU campus.

On Tuesday, students, who gathered at the JNU students' Union office for the screening of the controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the 2002 Gujarat riots, claimed the varsity administration cut power and internet to stop the event, and staged a protest after stones were thrown on them.

They claimed that they were attacked when they were watching the documentary on their mobile-phones as the screening could not be held. Some alleged that the attackers were members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a charge the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-affiliated student body denied.