Bengaluru: The postponement of a documentary screening on Umar Khalid at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), following threats from Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), did not deter students from gathering at the venue Monday evening. At the scheduled time, a group of students held an independent reading of Khalid’s latest letter, ‘A Day in Tihar Jail’.The reading was held at the university’s amphitheatre at 7pm, the same time and place where the screening had been scheduled. Around 20 students, pursuing various programmes at the law school, gathered and took turns reading one paragraph each from the letter. They later read out the Preamble to the Constitution and discussed the reading among themselves.The event was independently organised by the students.“Education lives beyond classrooms and universities. We engage in the process of educating ourselves only when we read more, write more, debate and discuss our ideas with others, also hear opinions from people who do not agree with us, watch movies and documentaries, read poetry, novels, non-fiction books. It can be anything. Consumption of knowledge and ideas is the first duty of a student. Reading and learning is a self-liberating act and students must be committed to the pursuit of knowledge. If a law school doesn’t follow the top-most legal scholar this country has seen, isn’t it a shameful thing?” asked a student who attended the reading.The Law and Society Committee had planned a screening of ‘Prisoner No. 626710 is Present’, a documentary by Lalit Vachani on Khalid. However, ABVP opposed the screening and asked the administration to deny permission for the event.The committee later announced that it was rescheduling the screening. It said it was not backing out of the event because of pressure from anyone, but was taking a precautionary step to ensure the screening could be held in a safe and responsible manner.Another student who attended the reading said education was about engaging with different perspectives. “Education as a tool is meant for you to sit with somebody, discuss and have a dialogue, and understand various perspectives. We all have contradictory political opinions and one may not always be right. But this is a university space, and listening to someone with an altogether different view is what education is supposed to be about,” the student said.Memorandum to ministerThe Union minister of law and justice, Arjun Ram Meghwal, visited NLSIU Wednesday. The minister took part in a conversation on subjects ranging from court infrastructure to careers in public service. In yet another engagement, an ABVP Bengaluru delegation submitted to the minister a memorandum demanding the permanent cancellation of the controversial Umar Khalid documentary screening.
