Team News Riveting
Kochi, January 31
Veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan on Tuesday stepped down as chairman of KR Narayanan Film Institute of Visual Science and Arts (KRNNIVSA), Kottayam.
His resignation came after the institute director Shankar Mohan quit the post ten days ago on January 21 following controversy over casteism. Adoor tendered his resignation to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is also the president of the governing council of the institute on Monday. He announced it at a press conference on Tuesday in Thiruvananthapuram.
However, Adoor dismissed all the charges against the former director Shankar Mohan as baseless and declared his solidarity with him.
As many as 82 students belonging to two batches of the institute had launched an indefinite strike on December 5, 2022. The predominant issue raised by students was the inhumane treatment on the part of Shankar Mohan towards the students and staff and discriminating them on the basis of caste. Mohan was also alleged of forcing the cleaning staff of the institute to do domestic chores at his official residence.
In his resignation letter to the Chief Minister, Adoor has called for a thorough investigation by higher police officers to bring out the sources behind the protests held in the institute. He also cautioned the government that otherwise the investigation would have the opposite effect.
Adoor also criticised the government-appointed committee headed by Malayalam University Vice Chancellor K Jayakumar without naming it. “Through the investigation dramas instead of identifying the culprits they tried to humiliate and despise those people who lived with straightforwardness,” the letter said.
Heaping praises on Shankar Mohan, Adoor Gopalakrishnan claimed that there had been no complaints against Shankar in four decades, but that in Kerala “we invited him, raised baseless allegations against him and sent him away in humiliation”.
