FTII students leave Centre fuming just ahead of talks

The government on Monday expressed its displeasure after some FTII students distributed copies of a letter written by US scholars, urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke the appointment of TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as the institute's chairman.

The development came a day ahead of scheduled talks between students and the government to end the three-month old strike against appointment of Chauhan and five others in FTII's governing council.

The students released copies of a letter written by over 200 eminent US-based academicians, students and Silicon Valley professionals, including Noam Chomsky, Partha Chatterjee and Vijay Prashad, who said 'installing individuals whose qualifications are arbitrary at best as members of the governing council at FTII is regrettable and seems motivated mostly by their allegiance to the BJP."

The experts drew Modi's attention to controversial compromises over institutional autonomy in other public institutions of research and higher learning such as ICHR, ICCR, NFDC, NBT, the IIMs and the IITs.

K Sanjay Murthy, joint secretary (Films) in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, who will meet the protesting students on Tuesday in Mumbai, sent a missive to Harishankar Nachimuthu, president of FTII students federation, saying some office bearers of the student's body engaging in this kind of side show on the eve of scheduled talks was not exactly the best way for creating a conducive atmosphere for a dialogue.

The students have been boycotting classes against Chauhan's appointment since June, saying he is a RSS supporter.

The protesting students had on Sunday called off their 18-day-old hunger strike after the government agreed for a meeting on Tuesday. "It was avoidable at this juncture. The negotiations over any deadlock require certain commonality of resolve and a system of trust and faith," said Murthy in his letter.

The meeting in Mumbai between representatives of the students and officials is expected to help the government find ways to end the strike peacefully.

Earlier, there have been several back channel negotiations between government representatives and students, following which sources alleged that a section of the students was hell bent upon continuing the strike for political reasons.

The sources also claimed that they had offered a dilution of Chauhan's role and appointment of fresh neutral faces in the governing council but this failed to break the ice with the protesting students.