FTII row: Protest intensifies as 3 students sit on indefinite hunger strike

Pune, Sep 10: With no end in sight to the nearly three-month-old strike in FTII, 3 protesting students on Thursday sat on indefinite hunger strike to press for removal of actor Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the premier institute was not met by the Centre.

Earlier, FTII Students' Association (FSA) representative Vikas Urs had informed in a press conference, "The students will be sitting on an indefinite hunger strike if our demands are not met by the government which has put us in this situation. There is no option left."

Meanwhile, the fast undertaken by a faculty member Abhijit Das of the Art Direction department of the institute seeking "immediate resolution" of the crisis entered its sixth day today.

Referring to the fast by Das, Urs had earlier said it was "extremely disturbing" the way the FTII administration and the Information and Broadcasting Ministry were dealing with the issue.

3 FTII students begin a hunger strike in Pune, demanding resignation of institute's chief Gajendra Chauhan. pic.twitter.com/A4wGczvKQw

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He accused FTII Director Prashant Pathrabe of not "doing anything to resolve the crisis" and adapting "a manipulative mechanism" to malign the students.

As the controversy over Gajendra Chauhan's appointment isn't dying down, the Centre has reportedly decided to put an end to the strike.

Speculations are also rife that renowned filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, an alumnus of the FTII, as the head of academic affairs of the institute.

OneIndia News