Academic activities have been paralysed at the sprawling campus of the Film and Television Institute of India for over a month now, and the government shows no sign it is willing to resolve the standoff following the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of its governing body. Given how the students’ agitation spread, the government should relent and seek a replacement for the small-time TV actor whose appointment may have been to satisfy the ideological priorities of the RSS rather than an honest attempt to give FTII professional guidance from the top.
The world of cinema has any number of highly-respected senior actors and directors capable of handling the many issues that must be tackled in reforming and improving an institute that attracts not just graduate students wishing to learn creative cinema, but also film and advertising professionals who enrol to reskill themselves in their chosen vocation. The nature of the student body means these are not people to be talked down to nor dismissed as students without sufficient experience and knowledge of the wider world. Nor should the I&B minister have shown churlishness such as saying the Centre would rather shut down the institute than listen and respond to the students’ demands.
The ruling party at the Centre should know there are any number of senior members of the thespian clan who are well disposed towards it, and picking any one of them would satisfy the need to urgently replace someone who was obviously a poorly thought-out choice for the job. The number of big-time actors who have voiced support for the demand to oust Gajendra Chauhan suggests there had been a slip in choosing the head of an institute that prides itself on being a place where there is plenty of scope for duality of thought and freedom of ideas to express in the creative field of filmmaking and acting.
A new director has just taken charge at FTII, making the present the ideal time to go the whole hog and bring in a new chairman who will help address the many issues that need strong hands to resolve. With the director in charge of running day-to-day affairs, what is expected of a chairman is to lend his charisma and help push things in a positive direction. The threat of rustication of agitating students and stubbornness in not accepting that the ideologues have made a very big mistake in their choice of personality in a field in which the country has huge talent would only complicate matters further.
To admit to an error and take corrective action needs a modicum of magnanimity. Will the BJP-NDA please show it and act quickly to rescue the FTII from its present morass?
