Visva-Bharati students of a Left-leaning students’ outfit will screen two parts of the BBC documentary — “India: The Modi Question” — on Thursday evening on campus at a time when Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh is scheduled to watch a performance by varsity students a stone’s throw away.

The Democratic Students’ Association (DSA) has begun campaigning on social media platforms urging students to turn up for the screening of the BBC documentary at Ratan Pally ground on the varsity campus.

Organisers Wednesday afternoon announced their decision to screen the documentary to let varsity students “know the truth behind the Gujarat massacre”.

“Inspired by the initiative of students of Delhi’s JNU and the screening of the documentary at Jadavpur University and Presidency University in Calcutta, we were planning a screening since January. We will screen it on Thursday,” said Subho Nath, spokesperson for the DSA in Visva-Bharati.

When the documentary will be screened at 6pm on Thursday, Singh will be watching Rabindranath Tagore’s musical Bhanu Singhar Padavali.

“It is true that we have been planning to screen the documentary since last month. But we took the final call on Tuesday night after coming to know that the defence minister will visit the campus. It is a silent protest against the Narendra Modi government that is trying to suppress freedom of the press,” said a student leader of the DSA.

A DSA leader said Santiniketan police called them on Wednesday and urged them not to screen the documentary citing the ban by the Centre and security concerns.

“We have requested students not to screen the documentary because of security issues. If they go ahead with the screening, we might prevent them,” said a senior police officer.

“We don’t know why the state police are against the screening of the documentary. It won’t disturb the defence minister’s programme,” Nath said.

Sources said Visva-Bharati organised its convocation on Friday at very short notice. Rajnath will grace the convocation as chief guest.

Many people, including students and old-timers on campus, questioned the invitation to the defence minister for the convocation.

“I can’t recall a defence minister gracing the convocation of Visva-Bharati. It is a new tradition by the varsity administration headed by vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty,” said a former varsity professor.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who happens to be the chancellor of Visva-Bharati, attended the convocation physically in 2018 and virtually in 2021.