Students rejoice as Shankar Mohan resigns as KRNNIVSA director

Protesting students of K R Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts (KRNNIVSA) cheered the reports of director Shankar Mohan’s resignation.

The students of the institute have been agitating since December 5, accusing the director and management of caste bias against sanitation workers of the institute, breaching reservation rules for student admission, denying students the chance to work on their diploma films among other charges.

According to student council chairperson Sreedev Suprakash, they are yet to receive any official announcement, but are happy nevertheless about the turn of events.

"Definitely, we are happy that the director has resigned. Though he claims that he decided to step down as his tenure is over, everyone knows the real reason why he took that step. This is definitely a positive outcome from our strike," he said.

Sreedev stated that Shankar Mohan's resignation was definitely their major demand, but there are several other issues that need to be resolved.

“We are hoping that it will be resolved in the coming days. However, we are confident that things will be better since most of the problems and anti-student measures that took place in the institute were during his tenure.

“His resignation will hopefully make it simpler to meet our demands,” he said.

According to him, the students may call off their strike, but a decision in this regard can only be taken after a discussion with representatives of the government.

“We still need the Kerala government to make public the report of the panel constituted by it to look into the complaints of caste discrimination, among others,” he added. Filmmaker Jeo Baby, who is actively backing the protesting students, said it is still too early to say whether the protests need to be called off.

“The government is responsible for ensuring that the students are provided with the right atmosphere to continue their studies at the institute. For that, they need to make the commission report public. They also have to ensure that the students' other demands are met,” he said.