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A screening at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) of a documentary on imprisoned activist Umar Khalid, scheduled for Monday, September 14 at 7 pm, has been postponed citing “logistical and security considerations”. While the event was rescheduled amid opposition from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the organisers said they were not backing out because of pressure from anyone.
The Law & Society Committee (Law Soc), a student organisation at NLSIU, had planned a screening of Lalit Vachani’s documentary Prisoner No. 626710 is Present on campus at 7 pm on September 14. The screening was to be held in solidarity with Umar Khalid, marking Political Prisoners' Day (September 13) and the sixth anniversary of his arrest.
A former student leader at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Umar Khalid was arrested in connection with the Delhi riots case and has been in custody since September 2020. He has been charged under the UAPA and other provisions of law, and is yet to face trial.
An email from Law Soc announcing the rescheduling of the screening said, “The postponement is a precautionary step taken to ensure that the screening can be held in a safe and responsible manner,” adding that it will be held this trimester.
Bar and Bench reported that its sources said the event was rescheduled as it coincided with Ganesh Chaturthi, which would have strained security arrangements.
ABVP, however, said it saw the deferral of the screening as a result of its opposition and insisted that the event be cancelled. In an earlier statement, the RSS-backed student outfit had said that it had also emailed a formal complaint to the NLSIU administration demanding that the screening be stopped, but had received no response.
The demand at NLSIU comes weeks after the administration of JNU in Delhi revoked permission for the venue where a discussion on Umar Khalid’s book, Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power, was scheduled to be held in August. The book is a version of Umar Khalid’s PhD thesis, which he completed as a research scholar at JNU.
A day before the scheduled event, JNU revoked the auditorium booking, claiming “non-disclosure of the full facts about the program” as the reason. ABVP had claimed credit for the cancellation of the venue.
The discussion was subsequently held at a different venue on the JNU campus, amid disruption by ABVP members.
