[New Delhi,Pune] FTII Protesting Students,Showing Roots,Seek Rahul Gandhi’s Intervention
Students of FTII demanding removal of small screen actor Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the institute have approached Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, seeking his intervention to check the “assault on institutions of higher learning”.
Sources in Congress said that the students have invited Gandhi to come to Pune and support their cause.
250 FTII students are on strike against Chouhan’s appointment and are demanding the formation a committee which will make the rules for the FTII society.
A number of filmmakers have also resigned as members of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Society expressing their solidarity with the students.
Students have continued their strike for almost 40 days, boycotting academic work after failure of their talks with I and B minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on July 3.
FTII students’ association (FSA) has declared that the strike will continue till their main demand for removal of Chauhan–who they allege lacks vision and stature to head FTII–and reconstitution of the FTII Society is accepted.
In the letter to Gandhi, Student Leader Nachimuthu is also learnt to have requested Gandhi to support them and take up the issue of FTII like he had taken up the issue of Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle in IIT Madras.
After agitation and a political controversy, the ban on the Dalit students body Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC) was finally revoked.