Fresh talks between FTII’s striking students and the government today failed to break the deadlock over the 110-day-long agitation for removal of actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as its Chairperson even as they decided to have another round on Thursday.

The two-and-a-half-hour meeting between senior officials of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and representatives of the striking students at the Films Division office here did not yield any breakthrough as the latter stuck to their core demand for dissolution of the governing council of the premier institute headed by Chouhan.

I and B Ministry Joint Secretary Sanjay Murthy was among the officials who participated in the talks, a senior official said.

“Despite a 2.5-hour-long meeting with seven students and three joint secretary-level officials of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, we could not reach an accord as we emphasised on the core demand that was to remove the present governing council, headed by Gajendra Chauhan,” said Vikas Urs, spokesman of the FTII Students’ Association (FSA).

Urs, one of the students invited for the talks, said, “We maintained our long-pending demand that is the dissolution of the present FTII governing council and simultaneously setting up of a new search committee through a transparent process in place to look into appointments of chairperson, members and other staff,” he said.

As of now, our protest will continue as per our resolution and we are very much hopeful that the meeting on Thursday would bring positive results, Urs added.

I and B Ministry officials also hoped that there will be some progress in the talks on Thursday.

Another FTII student, Malayaj Awasthi said, “We don’t want temporary arrangements to sort out the deadlock, rather we want a permanent solution from the government that can bring the glory of the institute back.”

Students have already expressed their demand that they also want FTII to be given the status of a premier national institute like an IIT or an IIM.

They have been opposing the appointment of Chauhan as the chairman of the governing council and its four members Narendra Pathak, Anagha Ghaisas, Shailesh Gupta and Rahul Sholapurkar by questioning their credentials.

“We don’t have any personal animosity against Gajendra Chauhan and other members. We want someone who truly has a body of work of national and international standards,” a former FTII student said.

After a police crackdown on students who had gheraoed FTII Director Prashant Pathrabe in August, the I&B Ministry had appointed a three—member panel headed by S M Khan, the Registrar of Newspapers for India, to have a dialogue with the students to find a way out of the deadlock.

The step was taken due to all—round pressure from students, their parents, alumni association as well as the film fraternity to end the logjam.

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