Guest Post by FTII Alumni
(Image : ftii hashtag on twitter)
The students of Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) have been receiving tremendous support from across the country for their strike against the appointment of Mr. Gajendra Chauhan and others in the Governing council of FTII.
As a result of sustained public pressure , I&B ministry has opened up a channel of communication to discuss the issue and a meeting has been fixed with a delegation of students and alumni of FTII on 3rd July, 2015 at the Information and Broadcasting Ministry office, Shashtri Bhavan at 3 pm.
The students efforts at reaching out to more and more has been met with blocking of their various social media platforms.The mainstream media is sending out contradictory messages. This has left the
students vulnerable.
The struggle by FTII students becomes important for all of us since this is not an isolated attack on education and cultural institutions. When looked through the lens of the recent appointments at institutions like ICHR, NFDC, IIT Delhi, CFSI and CBFC or the de-recognition of Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle among others, the resistance of students at FTII becomes even more pertinent and important.
We, as alumni of FTII, urge you to come and stand in solidarity with FTII students as they talk with the ministry. We will assemble at 2pm outside Shastri Bhawan, I&B Ministry (next to Central Secretariat Metro Station).
If we don’t register our protest at this crucial juncture, it won’t be long before all higher educational and cultural institutes are reduced to being mere puppets of the state, inaccessible to economically weaker and marginalised sections of our society.
Please do spread the word and come in large numbers with banners and posters and other creative forms of expression to show solidarity with this crucial fight to save our cultural and higher educational institutes.
In Solidarity,
FTII Alumni
(https://www.facebook.com/events/1451618191826327/)
For further details, please contact-
Kislay- 09049479725
Nakul- 09560924115
Aditi- 09911513144
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
We support the strike against the appointment of Mr. Gajendra Chauhan and others in the Governing council of FTII. We must stand in solidarity with students of FTII.
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I think FTII should be completely deregulated.Let the state auction this institution to the highest bidder. Let market take care of education. What is the use in continuing this socialist legacy? Why should citizens pay for this utter and total waste of money?
Continuation of FTII distorts the market. It privileges education. It is wrong. Indians have made culture without state institutions and will continue to do without it.
Now the time has come for market to determine what sort of cultural products sell and what doesn’t. Why can’t the state let market decide what to teach, what to learn, and what skill are necessary?
If the students cannot afford money, the state should supply them with loans. The job of state is to regulate, not run these completely, hopeless, socialist institutions.
I am sure YRF, Excel, Dharma, Red Chilis, T-series, Fox, Balaji films could run this institute much more professionally, efficiently than these good-for-nothing bureaucrats.
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A belief that markets are solution to everything does not come with any empirical evidence. We live in a world where 80 billionaires own half of the global wealth.
Markets are not part of the solution. Market led growth creates inequality. Markets are part of the problem.
And in India markets come with an additional inequality of caste. Only one caste dominates the market in India. A belief in market based solutions directly benefit one caste.
The education budget of India for this year was 70, 505 crores which was 16.5% lower than actual outlay for this fiscal. While the Indian state has given a subsidy of 9 Lakh crore to markets. There is no debate why only one caste has benefitted from this appeasement.
Why should market appeasement not be questioned?
We the people are part of a republic. We have a choice to create an equal society.
Citizens need to understand that they now have vociferously agitate to make education a public good. Why should a good, decent education be not the right of every citizen?
Why can’t Indian society educate all its members on its own without relying on markets? Why should Arun Jaitely’s agenda to privatise FTII must not be challenged on all platforms?
The idea that Arun Jaitely views paltry sum of 88 crores for FTII as a “huge-expense” is deeply outrageous, insensitive and scandalous. And the fact that the same minister does not mind giving a 9 lakh crore subsidy to markets appear as deeply cynical.
Does that money not belong to citizen on India? Should that money not be used to serve public interest?
Market fundamentalism, Washington Consensus policies, privatisation have increased social tensions, deepened caste hierarchies and created religious fissures in India.
I sincerely hope FTII is not privatised, I hope enough people make enough noise to raise the budget of FTII from 88 to 188 crore and Gajendra acts in 100 more Khuli Khidkis. Amen!
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