Adoor Gopalakrishnan addressing a media conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday | Photo Credit: Mahinsha S
bringing down the curtain on the long-running season of Controversy at KR Narayanan National Institute of Visual Sciences and ArtsKottayam: Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan resigned as chairman of the institute, which has been at the center of a storm following a protest movement by students. Resignation of the director of the institute, Shankar Mohan for alleged caste discrimination.
Addressing the Meet the Press program on Tuesday, Mr. Gopalakrishnan accused certain vested interests opposing the steps initiated to bring discipline in the running of the institute, inciting the students to protest against Mr. Mohan, who had resigned. Last week.
Read this also |KR Narayanan Film Institute gets interim director
Adoor’s charges and ministerial posts
The filmmaker said he had a long conversation with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday after submitting his resignation. He also issued a five-page statement, in which he targeted the government commission of inquiry set up by the governmentAlleging him or her of not contacting Mr Mohan and submitting a report, who had spread lies in the social media.
The institute is already facing an unprecedented crisis with eight of its employees tendering their resignations in solidarity with the outgoing director. Filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli, chairman of the academic council, also submitted his resignation. Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister R.K. Bindu sided with the findings of the commission of inquiry and said that the commission was appointed with the approval of Mr. Gopalakrishnan, and that its members would have no intention of deliberately creating trouble for the director or the chairman. He said that he would have submitted the report after understanding all the issues.
However, Mr Gopalakrishnan demanded a probe by a high-level police team to uncover the conspiracy behind the protests. He praised Mr. Mohan, who he said has an exemplary record of over four decades, during which he headed several film institutes and moderated various film festivals. Mr. Gopalakrishnan said that baseless allegations were made to insult him and he was sent away.
response to allegations
In his statement, Mr. Gopalakrishnan gave a clear answer to each allegation. He said that the allegations of caste discrimination do not stand because none of the sweepers belong to any Scheduled Caste. A sweeper was deputed once a week to clean the official residence of the Director, for which an additional allowance was given. No one was made to clean the toilets. However, without ascertaining the facts, shameful allegations were leveled against Mr. Mohan’s wife, a housewife. He accused the office clerk, who alleged caste discrimination, of laxity in his work and of being responsible for the delay in sanctioning grants for SC/ST students. They had also approached the SC/ST commission, however after the commission’s probe, they have now changed their stand against the commission, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said.
On allegations of discrimination against reserved category students in admission to the institute, he said the delay on the part of the LBS Center for Science and Technology, the government agency conducting the screening process, led to the situation. He said that he, the director and the dean had a detailed discussion with the students two weeks before starting the protest. Although the discussions ended amicably, the protest movement began without warning on 5 December. Earlier bookings for students to attend the International Film Festival of Kerala in Thiruvananthapuram were canceled under the impression that the protesting students would not travel to the festival. But, the student “secretly” traveled to the festival and turned the venue into a stage to raise their protestshe alleged.
The filmmaker accused the institute’s PRO, the watchman, two faculty members, a clerk and a storekeeper of working behind the scenes to instigate the protest as they were against the steps taken by the administration, including the implementation of the punching system, and Wanted to frustrate all efforts to improve the institution.
malayalam film maker
Several faces of contemporary Malayalam cinema, including filmmakers Aashiq Abu, Mahesh Narayanan, Jio Baby, Kamal and KM Kamal, have been part of the protest movement demanding the director’s resignation. Mr Gopalakrishnan has been saying that the filmmakers had joined the protest without actually studying the issues. He also accused some of them of not voicing a contrary opinion on the protests for fear of being labeled “old fashioned”.