Indian school faces sedition charges over citizenship play

NEW DELHI: Indian police have launched a sedition investigation against a primary school over a play that allegedly criticised a contentious citizenship law, officials said on Wednesday.

There have been widespread street demonstrations against the law introduced by the Hindu-nationalist government that grants citizenship to religious groups from three neighbouring countries, but excludes Muslims.

Police said they were laying initial charges under the British colonial-era law against the principal and the management of the school in Bidar district in the southern state of Karnataka.

The probe came after a member of the youth wing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party filed a complaint against the school. "We have started an investigation into the complaint by an activist who alleged that the play criticised and disrespected Modi," Bidar police chief T 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.