Real reason behind midnight swoop down on FTII students

A gherao, high-pitched sloganeering, a director locked up in his room, a crashing glass door and midnight arrests - the events over the past two days at the Film and Television Institute of India on August 17 could well serve as a drama-filled script for the film students. What's come as the most shocking piece of news in this two-month long standoff is that the Pune Police arrested five students at midnight and charged them with rioting and damaging public property. Angered by the protests outside his office the previous day, newly-appointed institute director Prashant Pathrabe had filed a complaint accusing a group of students of a gherao and of confining him to his office. In his complaint he claimed that he was allegedly manhandled and threatened. While more students were also on the police list, the girls and a few others were let off in the midnight drama because of a few technical issues. That too, only after the students called a lawyer to object to the arrest of women after sunset, as per the rules.

Also read: Why attack on Gajendra Chauhan has nothing to do with FTII's future

The shocking midnight arrests point to a total breakdown of ties between the authorities and the students. For the past 70 days, the students have strongly protested the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the chairperson. They've roped in celebrity supporters, hosted politicians including Rahul Gandhi and even led a morcha in Delhi, demanding a reversal of the appointments. If the students thought that the government wouldn't react, they were wrong. On Monday, the director announced that he would begin assessing films made by the 2008 batch students as part of their final assessment project. The students wanted him to stop this. What could put the protestors on the back foot is that a number of students from the 2008 batch are still on campus without having completed their final projects. This, the government has said, puts undue pressures on the institute as students overstay well beyond the time needed for the course. Many of the new students are unable to get accommodation on campus and have to look for staying options around the institute which increases their costs. The course is heavily subsidised with government records showing that they spend up to Rs 12 lakh per student. Students not completing their degree in time creates a backlog which further increases costs.

Also read: Only good thing to come out of FTII protests till now: student creativity

Despite this, the students protested against the decision to assess their films, gheraoed the director's office, beat drums and shouted slogans, leaving Pathrabe confined to his office for four hours until the police were called in to diffuse the tension.

In his complaint, Pathrabe has alleged that when he tried to leave the office at the end of the day, the students forcibly stopped him. They mishandled him, threatened him and also mentally harassed him by saying that he was incompetent to be on the post of the director of FTII.

The midnight developments are set to strain government-student relations further. But as the students stubbornly step up their fight and oppose every legal move by the institute, they might just lose support of their well-wishers.