NEW DELHI – Indian police have launched a sedition investigation against aprimary school over a play that allegedly criticised a contentiouscitizenship law, officials said on Wednesday (Jan 29).
There have been widespread street demonstrations against the law introducedby the Hindu-nationalist government that grants citizenship to religiousgroups from three neighbouring countries, but excludes Muslims.
Police said they were laying initial charges under the British colonial-eralaw against the principal and the management of the school in Bidardistrict in the southern state of Karnataka.
The probe came after a member of the youth wing of Prime Minister NarendraModi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party filed a complaint against theschool.
“We have started an investigation into the complaint by an activist whoalleged that the play criticised and disrespected Modi,” Bidar police chiefT. Sreedhara told AFP.
He added that the young student actors, aged between nine and 10 years old,were also being questioned but would not be charged.
A school official told AFP that they were being “unnecessarily” targeted bythe government for expressing their views.Get exclusive insights of Asia from our network of correspondents
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The play, which was performed on Sunday, was part of Shaheen PublicSchool’s founding day celebrations.
A video of the five-minute play shared on social media showed studentstalking about how they feared the government would ask millions of Muslimsto prove their nationality or be expelled from India. -APP/AFP
