A group of activists and students on Monday screened the controversial two-part BBC documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ inChennai’s Valluvar Kottam.

The Chennai police had given permission for the group of about 200 to only protest on Sunday evening where they condemned the Union government for banning the documentary, however, later they watched both parts.

“The police objected to the screening but we spoke to the officials repeatedly and screened portions of both parts due to lack of time,” said Mohammed Ghouse of the Social Activists Forum, the outfit which organised the screening.

Last week, the controversy reached the University of Madras as the Student Federation of India (SFI) had planned a public screening of the series on campus on Friday, but were denied permission by the varsity.

However, a few students gathered to watch the series on a laptop on the campus even as a university official tried to persuade them to stop. About 100 students defied the ban and watched the first part of the documentary. On Thursday, the documentary was screened in the Presidency College in Chennai.

“People should decide what they want to watch, not the government. We had condemned the government’s action to ban it as it is against the principles of the Constitution,” said Ghouse.

The controversial documentary, which aired on January 17, was banned by the Centre in India describing it as false “propaganda”. The DMK-led Tamil Nadu government has also opposed the ban on the documentary.