Gajendra Chauhan appointment: Rahul Gandhi to visit FTII today

Mumbai: While the opposition continued to create uproar over Lalit gate and other issues in Parliament, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Friday visited the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) amid ongoing protests against appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as chairperson.

Mr Gandhi said the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the institution was part of the RSS’ “larger scheme” to undermine the educational, bureaucratic and judicial system, adding that the RSS and its loyalists were “undermining” FTII’s stature by promoting “mediocrity” and targeting its critics as “anti-national” and “anti-Hindu”.

“Why is the government disturbed by your protests”, Rahul Gandhi asked the protesting FTTI students. “You just told me that you have been warned”, he said, turning to one of the students.

“We are not in government but if there will be any privatisation of the institute, I will be sitting here with you”, he said. “The RSS and its sister organisations are systematically promoting mediocrity”, he added.

To shut people up they call you “anti-national, anti-Hindu”.

“Or they will shout you down. That is the nature of a bully”, Rahul Gandh said. Rahul Gandhi’s visit thus, has been strongly opposed by the BJP and its supporting media as an attempt to “politicise” the issue. FTII students have been on strike objecting to appointment of TV actor Chauhan as chairman.

Actor-turned-politician and BJP MP Paresh Rawal also took a dig at Gandhi, saying: “I have not listened to Rahul Gandhi’s questions”.

Only the PM decides in the BJP, only one man has the power. “I have seen this everywhere”, he said while holding discussions with the students on the FTII campus.

Students, who were disappointed by the treatment meted out to them by the government and bureaucrats, were comforted by Gandhi’s patient hearing. Their voices should be heard. Apart from Chauhan, the government has brought in four “persons of eminence” amongst the eight who have been RSS, ABVP, BJP workers in different capacities. Gandhi assured the students of his support and addressed a packed audience of more than 250-students, ex-students and faculty members who had gathered in the auditorium.

Ajayan Adat, representative of FTII students’ association said, “Structure of Indian democracy is such that certain issues need to be raised inside Parliament”. The message from the I&B ministry is that “there will be no revocation of Chauhan’s appointment or reconstitution of the FTII Society (the main demands of the agitating students)”.