ABVP seeks cancellation of Umar Khalid documentary screening at NLSIU
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Bengaluru: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in Bengaluru has urged the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) to cancel a proposed campus screening of filmmaker Lalit Vachani's documentary on jailed activist Umar Khalid, titled Prisoner No. 626710 is Present.
The documentary is scheduled to be screened at NLSIU on September 14 by the Law and Society Committee (Law Soc), a student organisation at the university.
The event is being organised in solidarity with Umar Khalid and marks six years since his arrest and continued imprisonment without trial under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots. The screening is part of a wider series of solidarity screenings and gatherings being organised at various locations across the country.
The event comes a day after Political Prisoners' Day, observed in India on September 13, and coincides with the date of Khalid's arrest in 2020.
Khalid, a former student leader at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), was arrested in connection with the Delhi riots case and has remained in custody since September 2020. He has been charged under the UAPA and other provisions of law, but the trial is yet to begin.
In a press statement, ABVP Bengaluru Secretary Abhinandan Mirji said the RSS-backed student organisation "strongly condemns the proposed campus screening".
Mirji said ABVP had also submitted a formal complaint by email to the NLSIU administration, urging it to stop the event. He said the university had not responded to the complaint so far.
"ABVP emphasises that academic campuses must remain dedicated to national integrity and learning, rather than serving as platforms for political propaganda or glorifying civil unrest," the statement said.
Advocate Girish Bharadwaj has also written to NLSIU Vice-Chancellor Sudhir Krishnaswamy, urging him to cancel the proposed screening.
The demand comes weeks after the JNU administration in Delhi revoked permission for a venue where a discussion on Khalid's book Fractured Communities: Adivasi Histories and the Politics of Power was scheduled to be held in August.
Reacting to the development, Umar Khalid's father, Syed Qasim Rasool Ilyas, told IANS that his son had not been convicted by any court and said attempts to prevent such screenings were "authoritarian".
"Until a court convicts a person, they are considered innocent in the eyes of the law. Preventing screenings or programmes until a crime is proven is an authoritarian and wrong approach by ABVP," he said.
Ilyas said questions surrounding the case had been raised by media organisations, human rights groups and various other forums in India and abroad.
He also alleged that people associated with movements against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had been linked to the Delhi riots by the government and that false cases had been filed against them.
Questioning the prolonged custody of his son and other accused in the case, Ilyas said the trial had still not begun even after six years.
"Even after six years, the trial has not yet begun. In such a situation, they should have been granted bail, but bail is being delayed at every level, from the lower court to the High Court and the Supreme Court, which is unjust," he said.
Ilyas added that democratic programmes of this kind should continue to be held at JNU and other educational institutions.
With IANS inputs