Delhi : Scores of Students protesting outside the I&B Ministry were detained by the Police. The Students were protesting against the saffronization of Film and Television Institute of India. It should be noted that the Students of FTII, Pune have been on strike since 12 june against the foisting of Gajendra Chauhan as the New chief of FTII. The foisting of Gajendra Chauhan is questionable and shady in more than one ways neither does his body of work or credentials are at par with any of th previous artists who held the position of the Chief nor does his creative abilities justify the move.
It is not only Gajendra Chauhan’s appointment that the students are protetsing against but also the appointment of other 4 members out of the 8 newly reconstructed committee at FTII, one such member to name is Mr Narendra Pathak whose only credential is being the Head of the ABVP wing of Maharashtra. The students feel that the appointment of such people to office of vital importance are an assault on the creative freedom and the artistic values upheld by the institute. Dibya from Disha Studenty Organization while addressing the gathering outside I&B Ministry said that such acts should not be seen as isolated but as a part of the collective whole agenda of Saffronization of educational institutes and centers of Higher learning. Whenever Capitalism faces crisis it calls its most loyal servant Fascism to its rescue.
Fascism with its iron fist goes to wreck havoc on the working classes. Fascism always tries to masquerade either in Nationalism, pride in ones race, religion, caste or creed and prevents the masses from recognizing its true enemy. In India, the Modi government came to power to precisely to that armed with its Hindutva agenda it started to attack scientific institutions starting with the Indian National Science Congress and the ban on Ambedkar Periyar to the revision of the NCERT textbooks, and the foisting of people like Gajendra Chauhan as the Chief of FTII.
On one hand Modi Government in the name of reforming labour laws is making them even more pliable so that workers can be oppressed even more ruthlessly and on the other hand it is diving people in the name of Beef ban, ghar wapasi, love jihad. To keep the voices of dissent in check it is targeting institutes of Higher learning, centres of art, literature and music so that the millions of people being oppressed under the boot of fascism do not find a voice. The protestors were shortly detained after they started their program outside the I&B Ministry. However the protestors didnt let their spirit die down and continued their protest even inside the Parliament Street Police station. Disha Student Organization, Naujawan Bharat Sabha and other student as well as progressive pro-people organizations participated in the protest.
