TISS bans student group for ‘creating division, defaming institute’

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai on Monday banned the student organisation Progressive Students’ Forum from campus, claiming that it was “defaming” the institute and “creating divisions” among students and faculty.

The “unauthorised” and “illegal” organisation was “misleading students from their academic pursuit and harmonious life in the campus”, said a notice signed by officiating registrar Anil Sutar.

The notice also alleged that the Progressive Students’ Forum was obstructing the functioning of the institute. The forum is affiliated to the Students Federation of India, the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The institute prohibited members of the student organisation from conducting or participating in events on campus, warning that such steps would be met with “immediate intervention and consequences”.

It said: “Any student or faculty member found supporting, associating with, or propagating the group’s divisive ideologies will be subject to disciplinary action as outlined in our institute policies.”

The notice urged students to report to the institute any “encounters” with members of the organisation. “All reports will be handled with utmost confidentiality,” it said, adding that the “primary goal” was to ensure a “safe and collaborative” academic environment.

The forum has been active on campus for more than a decade and has participated in the elections for the students’ union.

This came a month after the institute called the Progressive Students’ Forum an “unrecognised student group representing a small number of TISS [Tata Institute of Social Sciences] students”.

Responding to the ban order, a member of the Progressive Students’ Forum told Scroll that the decision was “politically motivated” and that the institute was “completely provoked” by the campaigns taken up by the organisation.

“Most importantly, we can say that notice was issued in view of the steps taken by the Progressive Students’ Forum in connection with the mass termination of teachers and staff recently,” the member, who did not want to be identified, said on Tuesday.

On June 28, the institute had sent notices to 55 teaching faculty members and 60 non-teaching staffers, stating that their contracts would not be renewed “in the event of non-receipt of approval/ grant from Tata Education Trust”.

Following a backlash, the institute withdrew the termination notices saying that there had been a “positive development” about the release of funds from the trust.

“Our organisation openly came out and spoke against it,” the forum’s member said. “We brought the news to the public. Subsequently, it was temporarily settled.”

The member added that the ban came ahead of the organisation’s bid to restart a signature campaign on campus, calling for a permanent solution to resolve the matters relating to the termination of teachers and staff, the release of the guidelines for permissions to organise events and the revocation of the suspension of Dalit student and PhD scholar Ramadas Prini Sivanadan.

In April, the Progressive Students’ Forum alleged that the institute had suspended Sivanadan for two years for participating in protests against the Bharatiya Janata Party government.

Ramadas, who is also a student leader, had received a show cause notice from the institute on March 7 objecting to his activism, specifically his participation in the Parliament March in Delhi in January and his post on social media encouraging students to watch the documentary Ram Ke Naam as an “‘anti-national’ act”, the forum had claimed in a statement.

Ram Ke Naam is a National Film Award-winning 1992 documentary by filmmaker Anand Patwardhan about the campaign by Hindutva groups to build a Ram temple at the site of the erstwhile Babri mosque in Ayodhya.

In January, the institute’s administration had issued a notice saying that it was reframing the guidelines for holding events on campus. The administration had suspended such activities, except for fixed annual events, till the new guidelines were formulated.

In March, the students’ union at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences had expressed concerns about freedom of expression after the restrictions were placed on student activities. It also criticised the “unprofessional, insensitive communication” issued by the administration in the matter.

“We had decided to update the higher authority and the chancellor of the institute about these issues,” the Progressive Students’ Forum member said on Tuesday.

The forum was “exploring all possible ways” to challenge the ban, he added.

“University Grants Commission guidelines allow students to form organisations, associations and unions,” he said. “Students have a right to do so. The guidelines also state that no student should be discriminated against based on their political affiliations.”

The forum member said that due process was not followed while issuing the ban. “If our organisation was not working properly or not following the rules in any way, the institute could have first asked for an explanation from a representative of the organisation or began an inquiry,” the member said.

He added: “If such steps were taken before issuing the ban, it could be justified technically even if not legally. That has not been done. Just a public notice was issued.”