This week, as India celebrated its 74th Republic Day on January 26 — which commemorates the enactment of the constitution — the country's police were detaining students over screenings of a recent BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi which has been banned by the government.
The two-part BBC program, India: The Modi Question, which examines Mr Modi's role in the 2002 anti-Muslim riots, was banned by his government over the weekend using emergency powers under its information technology laws.
This means people can no longer share clips on social media or air the documentary. Twitter and YouTube also complied with a government request to take down links to the documentary.
The decision to prohibit the documentary has sparked worries about freedom of the press, yet it appears to have little effect on Mr Modi's popularity and continued support in the wider community.
What is the documentary about?
The first episode of the documentary looks at the tensions between Narendra Modi and India's Muslim minority, investigating claims about his role in the 2002 riots that left more than 1,000 dead.
The second episode continues to explore the troubled relationship between Mr Modi's government and India's Muslims following his re-election in 2019.
"The documentary was rigorously researched according to highest editorial standards," a statement from the BBC said.
According to the British broadcaster, the producers approached "a wide range of voices, witnesses and experts" and the documentary featured a range of opinions including responses from people in Mr Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
"We offered the Indian government a right to reply to the matters raised in the series — it declined to respond," the statement said.
Why are students being detained?
The students are being detained for organising and participating in protests against the Modi government's decision to ban the documentary.
They organised screenings on university campuses across the country, but were met with resistance from authorities.
"This is the time for Indian youth to put up the truth which everybody knows. We know what the prime minister is doing to the society," said Liya Shareef, 20, a geography student and member of the student group Fraternity Movement.
This week has been marred by protests and scuffles with authorities at university campuses across India.
On Wednesday, tensions flared when students at New Delhi's Jamia Millia University organised a screening.
Police arrived at the campus with tear gas and riot gear, scuffled with protesting students and detained at least half a dozen.
Not far from there at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, authorities cut off power and the internet on another campus to interrupt the scheduled screening by a student union.
The students ended up watching the documentary — which has been widely shared on messaging apps such as Telegram and WhatsApp — on their laptops and mobile phones.
Student leader Aishe Ghosh said the power was cut off about half an hour before the scheduled screening.
"It was obviously the administration that cut off the power," Ms Ghosh said.
"We are encouraging campuses across the country to hold screenings as an act of resistance against this censorship."
Such scenes were not restricted to the nation's capital.
Students at the University of Hyderabad, in the country's east, screened the documentary on campus this week, prompting a police investigation.
In the southern state of Kerala, supporters of the Modi government held demonstrations while student groups and members of the opposition party, Congress, screened the documentary.
The Students' Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said it planned to show the documentary in every Indian state.
"They won't stop the voice of dissent," SFI general secretary Mayukh Biswas said.
What is the Modi government saying?
India's foreign ministry last week called the documentary a "propaganda piece designed to push a particularly discredited narrative" that lacks objectivity, and slammed it for "bias" and "a continuing colonial mindset".
Kanchan Gupta, a senior adviser in the government's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, denounced it as "anti-India garbage".
Opposition MPs weren't taken in by the argument.
"You can ban, you can suppress the press, you can control the institutions … but the truth is the truth. It has a nasty habit of coming out," opposition Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi said.
Mahua Moitra, a politician from the Trinamool Congress party, tweeted a new link to the documentary after a previous one was taken down.
"Good, bad, or ugly — we decide. Govt doesn't tell us what to watch," Ms Moitra said in her tweet.
Mr Modi, who is aiming for a third term in elections next year, was chief minister of Gujarat in February 2002 when a fire on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims set off one of the worst incidents of communal violence in the state, with at least 1,000 people killed, mostly Muslims.
Mr Modi has denied accusations that he did not do enough to stop the riots, and he was exonerated in 2012 following an inquiry overseen by the Supreme Court.
A petition questioning his exoneration was dismissed in 2022.
ABC/wires
