Midnight crackdown in FTII a 'harbinger of days to come': Congress

New Delhi: The Congress Party on Wednesday slammed the BJP-led NDA Government for the midnight crackdown on the FTII students, saying it was a harbinger of the days to come.

Reacting to the incident where five students of the prestigious FTII in Pune were arrested by the police for detaining the institute's director, Congress leader Manish Tewari said this is the 'proverbial Modi midnight knock'.

'It's a harbinger of the days to come where if someone goes against the government they will be arrested, incarcerated, tortured and possibly sent to a concentration camp in the Kutch desert. This is how this government is behaving with the most creative minds on the entire Indian cinematic,' Tewari told ANI.

The Congress leader further said that the arrested boys had a legitimate reason to protest as they do not think that the newly-appointed chairman of the FTII is up to the mark.

'Rather than removing the chairperson at midnight, you detain the students? Are we living in a civilised society or a totalitarian state? They are not terrorists that you behave in this manner and arrest them in the middle of the night,' he added.

The students were arrested by the police late last night after FTII Director Prashant Pathrabe lodged a complaint against them for detaining him inside the campus on Monday.

The students have been charged with obstructing a public servant from doing his duty, a non-bailable offence, and six other charges including destruction of property, punishment for voluntarily causing hurt, criminal intimidation, rioting, wrongful restraint and unlawful assembly.