'Yudhishthir don't teach us dharma': FTII students take protest to the streets

Students of the Film and Television Institute of India took out a protest march through the city streets today, demanding cancellation of the appointment of actor Gajendra Chauhan by the BJP-led government as chairman of the FTII governing council.

With reference to Chauhan's role as Yudhishtira in TV serial Mahabharata, the students raised slogans like "Yudhishtira do not teach us dharma" and said that FTII's institutional autonomy should be preserved without political interference in its affairs.

Displaying placards highlighting their slogans and demands, about 150 students walked from the FTII gate to the Balgandharva Theatre square where the march converted into a meeting addressed by local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Ajit Abhyankar as well as former Bombay High Court Judge B G Kolse Patil among others who supported the students and protesters.

The FTII Students' Association (FSA) has alleged that Chauhan lacked "credentials, stature and vision" to head the institute which is supposed to give a new direction to Indian cinema and also demanded dissolution as well as reconstitution of the newly appointed FTII Society.

The TV actor's affiliation with the ruling BJP too has been the focus of the three-week long agitation by students by boycotting classes and stopping academic work.

On an invitation by the Information and Broadcasting ministry, a ten-member delegation of the FSA is scheduled to hold talks with the authorities in Delhi on July 3 to discuss contentious issues leading to the FTII strike.