Monday saw the student and teacher body, who have been demanding the removal of NDA appointee Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of FTII, descend on Jantar Mantar and Parliament Street in New Delhi.
Day 53 of the protest of students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) saw a glimmer of hope of breaking the deadlock between the striking students and the central government. Joint secretary of the ministry of information and broadcasting assured a delegation of protesting students that he would take their demands to minister Arun Jaitely and try arrange talks between the two parties.
Monday saw the student and teacher body, who have been demanding the removal of NDA appointee Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of FTII, descend on Jantar Mantar and Parliament Street in New Delhi. They refused to budge from the protests sites till they were either let through the police cordon to continue their march to the Parliament or a member of the ministry met their delegation. While most protests at Jantar Mantar and Parliament Street end by evening, the students, who were in Delhi for the third time for their cause, threatened an all-night sit-in protest. They sang, danced recited poetry and chanted slogans indefatigably till they got an answer. A bunch of students and teachers were detained at the Parliament Street police station and one youth's arm was broken in a tussle with the police.
Around 100 students saw support pouring in from their own faculty, Delhi University professors, student groups across Delhi such as JNUSU, AISA, SFI, NSUI to name a few, along with activists such as Kavita Krishnan, filmmakers Sanjay Kak, parliamentarians KC Tyagi of the Janta Dal (United), Dharamvir Gandhi of Aam Aadmi Party, and actor turned politician spokesperson Raj Babbar.
Babbar, who had accompanied Rahul Gandhi on his Pune visit to meet the protesting FTII students, addressed Information and Broadcasting minister Arun Jaitely and his MoS Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in his speech to the protestors and be press. He said that if without good mentorship and teaching Rathore would not have been a great sportsman and Jaitely one of India's beat lawyers. Babbar said that he was not against any one person, as Gajendra Chauhan was his peer, but he was against the government's thinking that was costing the students good teaching.
He emphasised that the students were not in Delhi to fight but to have their voices heard and promised them the Congress party and its youth wing's full support. He also criticised the appointments in other cultural institutions, such as ICCR and ICHR, made by this government.
Other speakers refused to go by Babbar's diplomacy and minced no words as they launched a scathing attack on the central government, the state of educational and cultural institutions across India and the saffronisation happening in them. Delhi University professors Apoorvanad and Mukul Manglik both reiterated that FTII was fighting everyone's fight, and theirs was be kind of student protest that hadn't been seen in decades. Many saluted the students on refusing to crumble despite 50 days of "threats, pressure and violence " in Manglik's words.
Filmmaker Rahul Roy congratulated the students saying that "one small Institute was troubling such a large government". His point about the government wanting to crack down in all cultural spaces so that there would be no dissent was shared by many. They was general anger, reflected in slogans, placards and speeches, that education was being interfered with and any space of excellence being made mediocre. Students and alumni speaking in the crowd said that this was an ideological warfare aimed at breaking not only FTII but other such institutions.
KC Tyagi too assured FTII of continued solidarity and said that if parliament was functioning this issue would have created a storm within it.
Apart from Dharamvir Gandhi, who is estranged from his own party, the main AAP leadership too heard the protesters call for solidarity. Delhi Chief Minister will meet the students on Tuesday afternoon.
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