FTII: Director, Dean differ on ‘bouncers’

Under attack for deployment of bouncers at FTII, institute director Prashant Pathrabe on Saturday justified the decision saying it was taken in view of the “insecure atmosphere” on the campus after the students confined him to the <g data-gr-id="29">cabin</g> but its Acting Dean resented the step holding it gave the institute the “look of a military camp”.

FTII Director Prashant <g data-gr-id="20">Pathrabe</g>, who drew flak from various quarters for the step he had taken after the striking students resorted to “gherao” him, said scaling up the security was an “administrative decision” taken in view of the “insecure” atmosphere on the campus. “I had not asked for extra <g data-gr-id="22">security</g> but it is true that I felt extremely insecure following my 11-hour ordeal during the gherao by the students in office cabin on Monday evening. The FTII administration took the decision on the extra security following the incident,” Pathrabe told a news agency. 

Taking a sharply critical stand, FTII’s Acting Dean Sandeep Chatterjee strongly disapproved of the deployment of bouncers on the campus as an extra security step and said it gave the look of a ‘military camp’ to the educational institution.

The FTII students, faculty and alumni have reacted sharply against the measure arguing that it conveyed a wrong impression of the situation at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and projected the students as “criminals or terrorists”.

Even the three-member Information and Broadcasting Ministry team, which held talks with all stakeholders to find a solution to the 72-day old strike over the appointment of TV actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan, took a different view on the beefed up security in the form of “bouncers”.