Taking a leaf from the agitation undertaken by students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, four leaders from the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India Students’ Association (FTIISA) have gone on an indefinite fast in protest against the 10 per cent yearly fee hike and the exorbitant Joint Entrance Test (JET) application fees.
The hunger strike resorted to by FTII student leaders Aadhith V Sathwin (President, FTIISA), Rajarshi Mujumdar (Gen Secretary), PR Manikandan (Cultural Secretary) and Vivek Allaka on the Institute premises, entered the second day on Tuesday.
Talking to media persons in Pune in the evening, FTIISA president Aadhith V Sathwin said: “We will continue our fast till our two demands are met”
The FTIIS’ two demands are: revocation of the continuous 10 per cent hike in overall fee every academic year and reduce it and deferment of JET 2020 until there is reduction in the entrance exam fees.
“There has been a 10% hike in academic fees year on year since the batch of 2013. From the annual fee of Rs 55,380 from the 2013 batch the fees for the upcoming 2020 batch has reached to Rs 1,18,323,” Sathwin said.
“In addition, there has been an exorbitant rise in the JET (Joint Entrance Test for both FTII and SRFTI) application fee. From Rs 1500 in 2015, the entrance exam fee has gone up to a maximum of Rs 10,000 for JET 2020. As such the institute is making itself completely inaccessible to a large section of our population,” fasting FTIISA president said.
Meanwhile, FTII’s director Bhupendra Kainthola has requested the four students who have gone on a hunger strike to break their fast, pending a decision at an emergency meeting of Governing Council of FTII convened on December 27.
“Mr. Kainthola has told us that the Governing Council of FTII is convening an emergency session on the 27th December, 10 days from now. He has requested the four students on hunger strike to break their fast. However, it is their conviction to continue the strike until the Governing Council decides to stop the fee hike and drastically reduce the JET Admission fee,” Sathwin said.
“We strongly feel that the members of FTII Governing Council should have taken into account the worsening health conditions of these four fasting students while fixing the date of the emergency meeting. Under these circumstances, we would urge them to advance the meeting,” FTIISA president said.
This is the second time after 2015 when the students of FTII have gone on a strike on the institute premises. Earlier, the students had resorted to a major agitation in 2015 against the controversial appointment of appoint actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as the Governing council chairman. The agitation over Chauhan’s appointment as the FTII head had gone on for 139-long days.
Incidentally, actor Anupam Kher, who incidentally succeeded Chauhan as the chairman of the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), was among the prominent film personalities who had come out in support of FTII students’ agitation then.
The others who had supported the students’ agitation then included Rishi Kapoor, son Ranbir Kapoor, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, filmmakers Kundan Shah, Aziz Mirza, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Kiran Rao, Rajkummar Rao, Sudhir Mishra, Sayeed Mirza, Resul Pookutty, Amol Palekar and Piyush Mishra.
The FTII has produced most talented actors and artistes like Naseeruddin Shah, Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Smita Patil and Resul Pookutty.