70 days of questioning, 70 days of apathy, 70 days of media exposure, 70 days of mounting pressure, 70 days of soul searching, 70 days of camaraderie. 2 days of unnecessary violence.
I am the back-bencher student of the strike who has watched the speakers speak, the IT and admin guys work, the fund raisers raise fund, the actors perform street plays, the alumni negotiate. I am that student who has cautiously just watched and assimilated and followed. I have questioned my actions in the collective as ‘pretentious’, even though I have been inspired by the cause and the movement. I completely understand what is being asked of the government.
I treaded very slowly in the beginning of the strike. I was disturbed in the normal casual flow of my life by these appointments. I am so used to taking whatever is given to me that I was not sure If I have the right to question. I was not sure if I could protest and then follow it up with a strike. I wanted dialogue. But then we need to get the government’s attention for them to listen to us. The strike was just a way to get that attention.
I was on campus very hopeful when our representatives left to meet the Minister and I was on campus when they came back empty handed yet full of experiences to share. I was proud of myself when we wrote articulate letters to the various eminent film personalities and they came out in support. I was sad when a Mahesh Bhat or an Anupam Kher made some irresponsible remarks.
I was apprehensive when we wrote letters to Members of Parliament. But if the executive fails you where else do you take your protest other than the legislature? But I was angry with my naivety when a Rahul Gandhi turned this political. Though we had a good heartfelt chat with him.
I didn’t go to Jantar Mantar nor did I ever get detained or arrested till that day. Come 18th August midnight and I moved from the back benches to front this action, before I could even realise it myself.. I was hoping the movement shouldn’t lose steam in the absence of the leaders. I was hanging around the wisdom tree and suddenly I became one of the new round of leaders running the movement.
And with that, suddenly, I have found the meaning I was looking for in this whole mess. The insensitivity shown by the director is only the mirror image of the insensitivity shown by the ministry. I was fighting for sensitivity and respect for FTII as the leading institute in Film education.
We hadn’t assaulted the director, we did not vandalise anything on campus, we were not rioting. We had done a gherao and we were the ones who asked him to call the police if he felt insecure. The next day the police arrived to arrest us on the pretext of some non bailable offences that we had committed.
Dear director, is this reaction required really? We just did gherao and you have put us through this pain of police custody, the case, and the court hearings?
After the Delhi round of agitations we were all tired and we were re-assessing our position in terms of this mode of the protest. We were in fact thinking of how to get back to class without damaging our movement. But now thanks to your antics we are not going to stop the strike till we are heard and appropriate answers are given to us. This has not scared us in the least, in fact this episode has just strengthened our resolve to seek the answers.
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