Feature
FTII row: Chauhan to stay, co-chair in plans
New Delhi: Television actor Gajendra Chauhan, viewed as close to the BJP, will remain as chairperson of the premier Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), and to placate protesting students, the government is planning to install a co-chairperson of the institute, sources said.
While the information and broadcasting ministry is holding talks with students in Mumbai on Tuesday in the hope of persuading them to call off their three-month-old strike, the government is known to be firm on not caving in to the demand to remove Chauhan from the top post.
Instead, as a half-way measure, the ministry is planning to propose a co-chairperson of the institute who would be “acceptable” to the students, informed sources told.
In another measure, the government is also planning to remove around five members from the governing council against whom the students had strong objections.
“Chauhan will remain. We are considering these measures for the students,” the source told IANS, declining to be named.
In fact, a three-member committee — the I&B ministry constituted for examining the students’ grievances — headed by S.M. Khan, Registrar of Newspapers of India, also had earlier made a similar proposal.
The FTII students on Monday presented to the ministry a list of signatories of national and international repute, including well-known American philosopher and political commentator Noam Chomsky, who have expressed support for their cause.
The agitating students called off their 18-day-old hunger strike on September 27 after the ministry agreed to hold talks on Tuesday to resolve the issue.
The students are up in arms against Chauhan, who is best known only for his role as Yudhisthir in B.R. Chopra’s TV series “Mahabharat”, aired on Doordarshan between 1988-90.
He has done small roles in nondescript TV soaps and forgettable films. He has been associated with the BJP for several years and had actively campaigned for the party during the 2014 elections.
In July, well-known filmmaker Jahnu Barua, cinematographer Santosh Sivan and actor Pallavi Joshi quit the 12-member governing council of the FTII, expressing unhappiness over the government’s handling of the crisis.
The students are also demanding that the FTII society be dissolved and search committees be set up with a transparent process in place to look into the appointments of the chairperson and members. They are also demanding that FTII be given the status of a premium national institute like the IIT and the IIM and that no bureaucrat should be appointed as FTII director.
Among the personalities who signed the students’ letter in support on Monday are: Noam Chomsky, Columbia University professor, prominent academic Partha Chatterjee, and Indian historian and journalist Vijay Prashad; film personalities Vidya Balan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Dibakar Bannerjee.
The students have also reached out to employees at Apple, Intel, Facebook and other international companies to garner support for their cause.
Among the eminent personalities who have served as chairperson of the institute earlier are Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mahesh Bhatt and Girish Karnad.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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