Screening of Film on Kashmir Triggers Row at IIT Delhi

Students disrupted the screening of a film based on Kashmir calling it “anti-national.”

IIT Delhi campus. (Photo Courtesy: Indian Institution of Technology-Delhi website)

IIT-Delhi’s film society screened Iffat Fatima’s Khoon Diy Baarav (On a Trail of Vanished Blood) which is based on Kashmir on 29 January, all attempts were made to disrupt the screening.

The research scholars associated with the Centre of Social Sciences and Humanities at IIT-Delhi watched films routinely during weekends at 5 pm, which was followed by discussions on the films. Sometimes the director also attended the discussion.

A couple of students from the Applied Mechanics department sought to disrupt the screening of the film calling it “anti-national”. The students wrote to the officiating director, Professor K Thyagarajan who in turn forwarded their mail to the centre, seeking a detailed discussion from the department.

When the film was screened on January 29, a couple of students from the Applied Mechanics department sought to disrupt the screening, calling it anti-national. These students wrote to the officiating director, Professor K Thyagarajan, who has forwarded the mail to the department seeking a detailed discussion from them, The Hindu reported.

A heated exchanged entailed between those who watched the movie and those who protested the screening.

We should have the freedom to discuss a whole range of opinions, and centres such as IITs, should retain the right to discuss sensitive issues that cinema often raises in its audience.

<b>Ravinder Kaur, Faculty member of Humanities and Social Sciences</b>

Kaur said that the department would be discussing the matter with professor Thyagarajan on Wednesday. She also said that she hoped that the film society would be able to continue screening the movies.

The six-month-old society often screens movies dealing with contemporary issues.