New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the arrest of five students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune.
Rahul tweeted:
Protesting #FTII students arrested in #midnightcrackdown.Our students are not criminals Modiji.Silence.Suspend.Arrest:ModiMantra for AcheDin
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) August 19, 2015
The students have been arrested on charges of rioting and other offences in connection with the gherao of director Prashant Pathrabe. "FIRs have been filed against 15 students out of which five have been arrested," DCP T Tushar Doshi told a news agency.
The students on strike for the last 69 days against appointment of BJP member and TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as the institute chairman, had gheraoed Pathrabe on August 10, challenging his decision to go ahead with the assessment of the incomplete diploma film projects of the 2008 batch.
The director had remained confined in his office cabin for over six hours.
Rahul Gandhi had visited FTII a fortnight back and had even joined the students in meeting President Pranab Mukherjee over the issue.
"They (FTII students) have come into the institution based on their capabilities, but people who have been placed on top of them do not have the same capability. The people who have been placed on top do not have merit," Rahul had said.
The only merit they have is that they have sung the praises for the Prime Minister, of the BJP and believed in the ideology of the RSS," he said.
