Opinion Midnight knock
Government needs to urgently reach out to FTII students. It must talk to them, not treat them like political opponents.
Students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) during their agitation at the institute in Pune on Wednesday. (Source: PTI Photo)
Just when you thought that the government’s behaviour over the controversy at Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India had reached its nadir, it has swung even lower. While the prime minister launches more charm offensives overseas in order to project India as a world power, the domestic constituency is catching a signal on a very different wavelength from his government. Five FTII students were booked in the wee hours for gheraoing the director. The police could have firmly prised the director from their clutches and taken him to safety, but they had chosen to carry non-bailable warrants. The timing of their intervention constituted a message in itself — it was the proverbial midnight knock. The force used was disproportionate to the provocation, confirming the public impression that the government wants to bully the students into submission instead of dealing with the issue that they have been protesting — the stuffing of their institution with political appointees, without regard for artistic or technical merit.
For some weeks now, public outrage has been directed at Gajendra Chauhan, a middling actor with BJP affiliations who was shoehorned into the chair of the institution, setting aside other candidates of much greater stature. The party also packed the FTII society with people close to it. It is not unusual for governments to appoint sympathisers to institutions, but it is unseemly to pack them. And appointees need to have some redeeming qualities apart from party allegiance.
The FTII controversy has also drawn attention to the indifferent state of academics at the institution, which appears to have an appraisal backlog running into years. The arrests will focus public interest in that direction again since the gherao was apparently triggered by an academic issue, and this would provide some relief to Chauhan and the other appointees. But an academic deficit could have provided an occasion for the government to intervene in a supportive manner. It could have reached out to the students to find out what is wrong, and made them partners in an improvement scheme. Instead, the I&B ministry has refused to talk any further with the students unless they drop the demand for Chauhan’s ouster and return to their classes. Alternately, according to convenience, it is treating them as children and criminals. The government needs to urgently reach out to the FTII students, instead of treating them like political opponents.
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