Kolkata: Amid charges and counter-charges, the SRFTI campus remained tense on Wednesday.SRFTI students, bolstered by nationwide solidarity from the film fraternity, including acclaimed directors, like Anuparna Roy, Dibakar Banerjee and Rima Das, continued their academic boycott.But actor and BJP MLA Rudranil Ghosh raised questions about the functioning of the film school. Citing gross institutional mismanagement, he has requested I&B ministry to conduct an over-all audit that looks into allegations of financial irregularities. Earlier, more than 100 film-makers, including Roy, Banerjee, Das, Ronny Sen, Bauddhayan Mukherji, Rohan Kanawade, Alankrita Shrivastava, Payal Kapadia, Ranabir Das, Nishtha Jain, Devashish Makhija, Pratik Vats, Varun Grover, Sarvnik Kaur, Karan Tejpal, Aditya Vikram Sengupta, Tanuja Chandra, Sushmit Ghosh and Q, had issued a joint statement condemning the attack on students.Ghosh, the BJP MLA, welcomed the signatories’ request for an impartial investigation into Sunday’s violence, including reviewing CCTV footage, but insisted the inquiry must not be restricted to a single day. Ghosh called on the signatories to introspect, asking, “Do they know what these students in such institutes have been doing? Are they acting like students? They used a placard stating ‘Swamiji would not tolerate violence on the youth’. Don’t they know that Swamiji would definitely not endorse youths, who are into violence and vandalism.” He questioned whether petitioning film-makers understand the ongoing campus irregularities, highlighting that non-film events by banks and hospitals routinely occur in the auditorium without objection from students.“A few students, primarily from south India influenced by Left and ultra-Left ideologies, triggered the protest at a non-political event and tore down posters of Swamiji and Bharat Mata. Some students on campus have secretly disagreed with the protest,” Ghosh said. Director Ranjan Ghosh, who is a signatory, welcomes the idea of audit but highlighted that it should not be vindictive. Another signatory, director Ronny Sen, told TOI: “The film school is under the central govt. How can anyone stop if the govt wants to do an audit?”
