Pune: The striking students of FTII on Wednesday ruled out any compromise on their main demand of the removal of TV actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the institute.
After being released on bail by a local court along with four others, FTII Students’ Association (FSA) leader Vikas Urs, addressing a press conference said that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry needs to dilute its hard posture on the controversial appointment.
Asked about the FSA’s stand on the approach made by a high-level committee to visit FTII and sort out the issues at hand, he said, “we are ready and willing for any dialogue but we will not compromise on our demands.”
Referring to the dramatic midnight police crackdown on the students, Urs said it amounted to “criminalisation” by the FTII administration which had lost all credibility.
Five students were arrested in a midnight swoop for rioting after they allegedly confined the premier institute’s director to his chamber.
“The midnight crackdown was sinister by its very design and execution. It was a step by the state to give a taste of its medicine to dissidents,” said Kislay Gonzalvez, a former student participating in the protests.
“If they think they can stop our protest by these undemocratic means, they are wrong. It will only increase our solidarity and strength,” he said.
Five students were arrested from the campus late on Tuesday night for rioting after they “gheraoed” the institute’s director Prashant Pathrabe to his chamber on Monday, allegedly abusing and using interrogation techniques to illegally confine him.
The students, however, said they were protesting against “irrational and unjustified” assessment of the incomplete diploma projects.
The government has formed a three-member team, headed by the Registrar of Newspapers in India S M Khan, to assess the ground situation in FTII and end the impasse, which entered its 70th day.
