BHU disallowed play glorifying Nathuram Godse from fest: probe committee

Varanasi: The Banaras Hindu University (BHU) did not allow a play glorifying Nathuram Godse to be staged at its annual cultural festival, a probe committee has found.

Trouble had erupted on the BHU campus in February, when a group of students claimed that a play which showed Mahatma Gandhi in a poor light and celebrated his killer, Godse, had been staged at the festival.

They had approached the police demanding a sedition case be filed after a video clip of the performance went viral on social media.

They had also complained to the university authorities, after which the university had formed a committee to investigate the issue.

The committee in its recent report said the BHU authorities had disqualified a participant who performed a mono-act on Godse when cultural performances were being screened for the university festival.

"During the screening process meant for selection of participants for the annual cultural festival, the participants presented performances based on the topic of their choice for a maximum of five minutes," it said.

The organisers or judges did not have prior information on the topic chosen by the participant, the report said.

"During the screening, a participant performed a five-minute long mono-act on Godse and was disqualified for selection for the festival by judges," it added.

The probe panel reiterated that the performance was "merely found to be a part of screening procedure and the organisers and judges had no prior information on the subject".

The BHU, one of the 43 central universities in the country, has been at the centre of controversy since 2017, when students, including women, and two journalists were injured in a baton-charge by the police after a protest against an alleged sexual harassment incident turned violent.