The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) has moved an international broadcast-news training programme out of its Kolkata campus because of ongoing student unrest, according to institute vice-chancellor Santosh Ajmera. The three-week programme, organised with the Ministry of External Affairs, began on October 27 and is scheduled to continue until November 13.
Eleven participants from countries including Russia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka are attending the programme on producing broadcast news for development communications. The International Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme provides specialised media training intended to strengthen international cooperation and build capacity in partner countries, an SRFTI official said.
Ajmera said the institute decided against holding the programme on campus because participants from abroad could feel threatened by the situation there. “Now what if they feel threatened because of what is going on inside the campus? So, we have taken a call to hold it in an absolutely different manner,” he said.
The programme’s practical sessions have been held at Doordarshan, while participants have also been taken to Santiniketan. Alliance Française du Bengale on Park Street is among the other venues being used by SRFTI. Ajmera said the institute had been able to conduct the programme successfully through this arrangement.
The relocation follows weeks of protests by SRFTI students. A torch rally held on the campus on October 27 marked a month since an attack on students and the alleged lack of action against those accused, according to the report. Police were called to the institute at around 11.30pm after the rally was described by the vice-chancellor as creating an “atmosphere of fear and anxiety”.
Students have been boycotting classes since September 28, following an attack on them a day earlier that was allegedly carried out by supporters of the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat. A further attack on October 4 was allegedly carried out by supporters of the Hindu Jagran Manch. These allegations were reported in the context of the ongoing student protest and were not independently established in the material supplied.
An SRFTI professor said academic activities had been suspended from October 17 until December 11. Students living in the hostels were asked to vacate within 24 hours of the order issued on October 17, but the teacher said none had left and the protest was continuing. The administration therefore could not hold the international programme on campus, the professor said.
The unrest has also affected SRFTI’s planned participation in the International Film Festival of India in Goa, which is scheduled to begin on November 16. Faculty members have refused to represent the institute at the festival. Ajmera said faculty had suggested deferring the institute’s participation in external forums while the current situation continued.
Instead, SRFTI plans to send students and faculty from the Film and Television Institute in Itanagar, which falls under SRFTI’s jurisdiction, to IFFI this year. The institute’s academic suspension is scheduled to remain in place until December 11, while the international training programme is due to conclude on November 13.
