FTII students on hunger strike against ‘exclusion’ of student

FTII Registrar Sayyid Rabeehashmi could not be contacted for a comment despite repeated attempts by The Indian Express. (Express photo)

The hunger strike was launched with the students demanding that the fifth student, who falls in the SC reserved category, be allowed to rejoin the batch. They attributed his poor attendance to “serious mental health issues” in the past.

While three students are on hunger strike, 43 students of the batch have boycotted their classes and joined the strike which is being supported by FTII Students’ Association.

Responding to queries from The Indian Express, the FTII administration said the Academic Council took the decision to ask the student to repeat a semester because his attendance was “too low” to be considered.

The five students involved are from the 2020 batch and pursuing Sound Design and Film Direction courses in the Film Wing.

“When our classes began for the third semester in April 2023, we got to know that five students from the batch had been expelled citing various reasons. We protested and boycotted the classes demanding that the expulsion be quashed as there were enguine reasons of mental health and deaths in families,” said Atharva Karvekar of FTII Students’ Association.

“After 20 days of protest, the institute called for an emergency Academic Council meeting and decided to cancel the expulsion of four students. By this decision, only one student was further excluded and asked to repeat his second semester as a supernumerary student with the next batch, with due repayment of admission fees. The supernumerary status denies the student any right to practical coordinated exercises, such as making documentaries, dialogue and final film projects, which are an integral part of the course,” he said.

“We are demanding that the student’s expulsion be revoked without any discriminatory conditions, that the third semester start from the beginning and that disciplinary notices given to protesting students by the proctor be revoked,” Karvekar said.

Speaking to The Indian Express, FTII Registrar Sayyid Rabeehashmi said the issue of five students was discussed in the Academic Council, which allowed four students to rejoin the course in the same batch.

“Two student representatives were also part of the Academic Council when it discussed the issue of the five students. The council allowed four students to continue their studies in the same batch with the condition that they do remedial assignments but found that the attendance of the fifth student was very low, only about 30 per cent, to allow him to continue in the same batch. So he was asked to repeat the semester with the next batch,” he said.

Rabeehasmi said the practical coordinated exercises are done in groups of five — one each from five departments — and in case of an additional student, such a group can’t be formed. “The academic council took the decision considering the best interest of all the students,” he said.