Actress Pallavi Joshi today turned up on the FTII campus to declare her support for the striking students even as the latest letter by the government seeking talks to break the impasse hardly changed the ground situation.
Joshi was the first person to resign from the FTII Society expressing solidarity with the students whose strike today entered its 104th day as they stuck to their demand for the removal of actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan from the institute's chairmanship.
Talking to reporters, Joshi said that the government should consider setting up a committee of entertainment industry members to mediate and end the deadlock as it was "sad" to see the students resorting to hunger strike on the campus.
She, however, asserted that Chauhan's appointment, which triggered the agitation, should be scrapped and there cannot be "two ways" about it.
Meanwhile, the FTII Students' Association (FSA), which is leading the strike, has replied to the latest Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry letter inviting it for a dialogue for breaking the impasse.
But FSA sources said that while they had replied to an I&B Ministry letter of September 22 expressing willingness for a dialogue, they were intrigued by the phrasing of the communication from the ministry, which appeared to lay down a precondition for the proposed talks.
They said that a precondition could be construed that the students were being asked to call off their strike before resuming talks.
The FSA, meanwhile, also refused to comment on the leaked content of the report submitted by the SM Khan Committee to I&B Ministry.
The report is said to blame the students and faculty for the delay in the 2008 batch assessment and justifies FTII Director Prashant Pathrabe's action in lodging a police complaint against the students who gheraoed him over the issue.
The students had gheraoed Pathrabe in his office in mid- August demanding an explanation about the assessment of incomplete diploma film projects of the 2008 batch based on orders from the I&B Ministry.
Asked about the response of the students to the letter written to FSA President Harishankar Nachimuthu by Joint Secretary in I&B Ministry, KS Murthy, asking him to suggest a date for talks, Pathrabe said he was not aware of any reply sent by the association.
