FTII Impasse Continues, Students Threaten Hunger Strike

NEW DELHI: The NDA government seems to have dug in its heels insofar as the appointment of TV actor-turned-BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as the Chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) is concerned. Nothing seems to have come of parleys held by government officials with the striking students with New Delhi completely silent about the demand for Chauhan’s removal.

The FTII students have now threatened to go on hunger strike. At a press conference the FTII Students Association representatives said, “We have written at least 15 letters to the government so far. But have not received any reply to any one of them. What kind of government have we elected? A government which is silent and doesn’t let creativity prosper?”

There was speculation after the last official-students meeting that Chauhan’s role in the institute would be diluted but even this has not been confirmed, or denied, by the central government.

Meanwhile, in a related development, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a plea seeking judicial intervention to end the deadlock. A public interest litigation seeking the Apex Court’s intervention was filed by a Delhi-based advocate, Vineet Dhanda, who contended that the ongoing strike was adversely affecting the students’ careers while bringing disrepute to the institute.

The students have been on strike for 88 days now with several filmmakers, intellectuals, academics, artists having supported the protest against the appointment of Chauhan as well as four RSS and BJP members in the Governing Council. The students have also sought to focus attention on the systematic failure to look into the longstanding grievances of the FTII students and faculty members, arising out of poor infrastructure facilities and acute paucity of funds. The overt politicisation of the Institute through these appointments was seen by the striking students as yet another blow to their demand for the uplift of the Institute to international standards.

The students said that they are determined to escalate the protest to a hunger strike. It remains to be seen whether this will elicit a positive response from the government given the fact that the Pune police has issued notice to Abhijit Das, a contract faculty member, who began a fast on the institute premises, for an “immediate resolution” of the current impasse between the students and the government of India.