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No Protests Please: FTII Makes New Students Sign 'Decorum' Affidavit

This is the first time that such an affidavit has been listed.
NEW DELHI, INDIA - AUGUST 3: FTII students supported by other student unions protest at Jantar Mantar against Gajendra Singh's appointment on August 3, 2015 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Ramesh Pathania/Mint via Getty Images)
Hindustan Times via Getty Images
NEW DELHI, INDIA - AUGUST 3: FTII students supported by other student unions protest at Jantar Mantar against Gajendra Singh's appointment on August 3, 2015 in New Delhi, India. (Photo by Ramesh Pathania/Mint via Getty Images)

After months of protests over the appointment of Gajendra Chouhan as the chairman of the Film and Television Institute (FTII), the film institute has come up with a plan to ensure new students don't indulge in protests.

According to anIndian Express report, the institute has made it mandatory for all new students to submit a "general conduct" affidavit.

The affidavit says in bold that the students are barred from violating the "decorum and decency on the campus" and "insulting" faculty members.

The report says that the new students will have to sign as many as five affidavits on a Rs-100 stamp paper.

This is the first time that such an affidavit has been listed.

"...I agree to maintain decorum and decency on the campus, including in hostel and staff residential areas, and in any circumstances would not be insulting to the faculty, staff members and elders," reads one of those affidavits.

The affidavit also says that hostel accommodation is not the right of a student.

Is this a reaction to protests against Gajendra Chahuhan? It definitely looks like.

A spokesperson of the FTII Students' Union called the language of the affidavit "patriarchal" and said it's a 'knee-jerk reaction' by the administration.

"We don't agree with such arm-twisting methods employed by the administration, aimed at instilling fear in the minds of the freshers," a student told Express.

The 139-days long strike that was called off on 16 December last year was the seventh major and the longest such protest in the history of FTII.

In the sixty years' history of FTII, over 30 different protests took place in various forms in addition to the six major strikes, which were mostly concerned with the syllabus, infrastructure and appointments.

Early this March, police identified 18 more students from FTII in connection with the alleged "gherao" and "illegal confinement" of the institute's director Prashant Pathrabe last year and issued them notices to present themselves before court on 14 March.

The FTII students, who were on strike for 139 days since June last year against the appointment of BJP member and TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman, had allegedly gheraoed and confined Pathrabe at his office on 17 August.

They had challenged his decision to go ahead with the assessment of the incomplete diploma film projects of the 2008 batch students.

The incident had led to police swooping-in on the campus on the intervening night of 18 and 19 August, and arresting five students. The students were charged under various sections of IPC, including 143, 147, 149, 323, 353 and 506, dealing with offences, some of them non-bailable, related to unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and rioting.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.