Congress Vice President, Rahul Gandhi will meet the protesting FTII students in Pune tomorrow.
In a show of solidarity with the students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) who are protesting against the appointment of their chairman by the Centre, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi will meet them in Pune on Friday.
Around 250 students are on strike, demanding the removal of small screen actor, Gajendra Chauhan, as chairman of the premier film institute's governing council. They also want the formation of a committee which will make the rules for FTII's council.
Sources say that some students had approached the Congress leader to "intervene" in the matter.
Students have been on strike for nearly 50 days, boycotting academic work after failure of their talks with Union Information and Broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on July 3.
Earlier, in a letter to Mr Gandhi, the President of FTII Students Association, Harishankar Nachimuthu is learnt to have requested the leader to support them and take up the issue of FTII, like he had taken up the issue of Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle in Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
After agitation and a political controversy, the ban on the Dalit students body Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle (APSC) was finally revoked last month.
Mr Gandhi had then attacked the NDA government over "centralisation" of power and de-recognition of the student group in IIT Madras and asserted that his party will always stand against injustice whether done on Dalits, tribals, women or people from any religion.
IIT Madras had earlier de-recognised the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle over an anonymous complaint to the Human Resources Development ministry that it was trying to spread hatred towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi's policies by distributing provocative pamphlets and posters in the campus, raking up a controversy.
The government had denied allegations of interference in the functioning of educational institutions.
Earlier, a number of filmmakers have also resigned as members of the FTII Society expressing their solidarity with the students.