FTII students demand a face to face interaction with I&B minister Arun Jaitley, after persuading the FTII director to interact with them, with the police having to intervene as students gheroed his office.
The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) students, who have been protesting against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan, have demanded a formal interaction with Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley.
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“Don’t treat us like government property. We are not property. We are part of this country. Bring Arun Jaitley for a face to face interaction,” said the students. “This has been happening for 67 days and we are not afraid to taking it forward,” they added.
Director gheraoed
Earlier, the students conducted a gherao at FTII director Prashant Pathrabe office, where they wanted to convince him to retract his decision to carry forward with the assessment.
When the director tried to exit the room, the students formed a human chain and continued to plead with the director to stay.
Police intervention
The FTII students’ body said that the police was officially called to intervene in the situation and added that the men in uniform attempted to pull and push the students out of the way, which resulted in the breaking of the glass of the Director’s office and injuring several students.
Director-students’ interaction
The situation was made to simmer down later and the Director walked out of his office and made to address the students and media community assembled outside.
When asked if he could justify the drastic actions taken by the ministry regarding the assessment and their interference in academia or even the five questionable appointments, the Director clearly said that he had no answer.
He announced that the assessment would be put on hold until he had a conversation with the ministry.
The students then requested the Director to call an emergency Academic Council meeting to address the issue of the assessment.