Heaping praises on Shankar Mohan, who recently resigned as director of the KR Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts after allegations of caste discrimination, veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan announced his resignation as chairman of the institute on Tuesday, January 31. Listing out the major institutes Shankar had headed over the years, Adoor claimed that there had been no complaints against him in four decades, but that in Kerala “we invited him, raised baseless allegations against him and sent him away in humiliation”. Taking on a defensive tone, Adoor released a five-page statement accusing certain people of “instigating” students to go on a strike against Shankar, and belittling the enquiry commission that found fault with Shankar.
"There is no other individual who is as knowledgeable and experienced in films as [Shankar] in India. We invited a Malayali professional of that stature here, then made baseless and untrue allegations against him, insulted him and sent him away," Adoor lamented in his press statement.
Students of the KRNNIVSA went on strike on December 5 last year, and raised their issues at venues of the International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) in Thiruvananthapuram. They spoke out against Shankar Mohan for alleged caste discrimination against Dalit students, as well as women employees who worked as cleaners.
Videos of the women speaking out about the demeaning working conditions won the protest a lot of support from prominent filmmakers such as Jeo Baby, Aashiq Abu, Amal Neerad, and others. Members of the public also expressed solidarity with the protest. The students also demanded the resignation of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, when the auteur refused to take their side and voiced his support for Shankar.
Eventually, the Higher Education Department under Minister R Bindu constituted an enquiry commission to investigate the allegations. They submitted a report, which reportedly found merit in the allegations. Soon Shankar Mohan announced his resignation, claiming that it had nothing to do with the controversy, but his term had come to an end after three years.
Adoor, in his detailed statement, said both he and Shankar had tried their best to raise the institute as the best for film education in the country. A certain official, who had delayed among other things the passing of grants for Dalit students, and fearing his term would not be extended, gave these false complaints against Shankar, Adoor stated.
On the allegation that women staff were asked to clean Shankar’s house, Adoor wrote that Shankar's is an official residence, and therefore the responsibility to keep the place clean fell on the sweepers. “But considering that the front yard was small and there was some distance to reach the house, the director decided that it was necessary to clean the place only once a week, and hired only one person for it. He also gave a separate allowance and travel expenses for it. You would not need one hour to clean that yard. The employee was not made to clean the bathroom. The director's wife is a nice homemaker, but the allegations against her would make her seem like a person with mental illness,” he added, even more problematically.
He also insinuated in his statement that the students, after holding what seemed like a peaceful discussion with Adoor and Shankar, “secretly” slipped to Thiruvananthapuram during the IFFK, not to watch films but to spread the story of the strike.
Adoor also blamed the Public Relations Officer of the institute, whom he accused of slacking at work, and a former security guard, of being responsible for spreading fake news and instigating students and the women employees to speak against Shankar. He expressed his concerns about the future of the institute, adding that he conveyed his thoughts to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The students had called off the strike after a discussion with Minister Bindu last week, during which the government agreed to all their demands.
Watch: The story of the protest