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 Ninety days and there’s still no end to the FTII stalemate in sight. With the government showing no sign of backing down or softening its position on the students’ demands, the latter have decided to intensify their agitation by going on hunger strike. Besides, they would garner support from other states for their cause.

The hardening of stance comes after Abhijit Das, a faculty member who had entered into a hunger strike on the Teachers’ Day (5 September), fell ill and was forced to withdraw.
“It was for the first time that a faculty member had joined the strike in support of the students. When his condition deteriorated due to fasting, we forced him to withdraw. The strike has entered its 90th day and it seems to be an end of our career. We’ve now decided to follow the extreme path of fast-unto-death as the government has turned a deaf ear to our demands. Besides, students’ organizations and activist groups will conduct protest march in all the state capitals to express solidarity with our cause,” Devas Dixit, a final year student told Firstpost.

Meanwhile, the government is silent over the findings of the three-member committee appointed by the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry into the troubles within FTII. The committee, headed by SM Khan, Registrar of Newspapers for India, members had visited Pune campus on 21 August and had rounds of discussions with students, faculty members and the alumni association.

“We’ve come to know that the committee has submitted its report to the ministry, but nothing has been communicated to us. We’re completely in dark, which is making the situation worse,” Devas added.

The government has so far not commented on the findings of the committee. But a source in the ministry said it disapproves of the students’ approach on their demands. “From the demands of the FTII students, it seems that henceforth the government should consult students’ bodies regarding appointments of vice chancellors, chairpersons, directors and principals in the universities and institutes. The issue has unnecessarily been over-stretched,” a ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

FTII row opens a can of worms

Though the issue of the appointment of the chairperson and other members has hogged media limelight, and the 2008 batch emerged as a ‘bone of contention’, the real problem began in 2001.

An interim report by the Group of Experts headed by PK Nair, former director, National Film Archive of India, in 2011 mentioned that it was not the students, but the existing system within the FTII that was at fault.

A copy of the report with the Firstpost mentions:

   In 2000, a new experiment, known as the 1+1+1 plan was hurriedly introduced by the administration, and it ended in disaster.
    A large number of semi-complete and incomplete students’ projects got piled up. The three-year course stretched on until sixth year, causing strain on students, teachers and administration.
    Delays due to lack of mechanisms to monitor maintenance of time schedules and production budgets.
    Infrastructural bottlenecks.
    Desperate shortage of teachers and trained faculty members at the institute.
    Unavailability and inaccessibility of faculty at crucial junctures.

“Equipment has been known to fail due to faulty maintenance, power cuts have disrupted schedules, laboratories have caused delays and the office bureaucracy may take days to obtain one signature for the release of required facilities…It is now so much a part of life on the campus that any fresh candidate applying for the FTII admission, we were told, is reconciled to the idea of staying for 5 years to complete a three-year programme. How long can this deteriorated state of affairs be allowed to continue?” Nair questioned in his report.

Another note written to the government by Dr Kedarnath Awati, Acting Dean, Faculty of Film at the institute has exposed the biggest anomaly, which is the jurisdiction of the I&B Ministry over the institute. He has also mentioned several causes of delay for the students to complete their curriculum.

Dr Awati said in the note, “For I&B Ministry, the FTII is but a tiny blip on a larger radar screen. We’ve been regarded as a media unit, rather than an academic institution. To top it all, we’re not even an arm of the government, like the National Film Archive of India. We’re an autonomous body run by a Governing Council. The proposals sent to the ministry have languished.”

Awati suggested, “It would have been better had the FTII been transferred lock, stock and barrel to the Ministry of HRD. Because, at HRD Ministry, education is the very life-blood and they understand the issues very clearly.”

Ranjit Nair, a core committee member of the strike, added, “We have raised our concern time and again but to no effect. The ministry and successive governments have been negligent. They level accusations against the students instead. The students have always protested against administrative failures. We have written letters to the ministry through years, but those were tossed aside. The delay in completion of the course has been going on since 2001.”

The controversy in nutshell

The FTII students went on a strike protesting the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as chairperson and four other members (out of eight) of the board. The reason stated was that the chairperson and the four members had strong Hindu right wing connection and didn’t have a body of work to justify their positions at FTII. The students’ body questioned the basis on which the appointments were made.

But gradually the 2008 batch of FTII emerged as the bone of contention, and it has been said that the students of this batch have been instrumental in the strike on the campus. And, this is the group of students virtually controlling the campus for seven years. When the institute’s director Prashant Pathrabe asked for an assessment of the projects of the 2008 batch students, he was gheraoed and it resulted in a midnight police crackdown in August. Five students were arrested and later released on bail.

Rahat Jain, a student of screenplay writing, justified the strike saying, “It is not just to oust a particular set of people but to strengthen the process. Regarding protests on appointments, if you go through the list of previous chairmen and FTII Society members, you will find them of a certain stature, repute and experience that is completely lacking in the current appointments. We have always reiterated that our strike is not against a particular government, but against the continuous negligence of the institute by successive governments that has now boiled over by the extent of the incapability of the latest appointments.”