The Progressive Students’ Forum claimed in a statement on Friday that the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai suspended Dalit student and PhD researcher Ramadas Prini Sivanadan for two years for participating in rallies against the Bharatiya Janata Party administration.
The institution’s registrar issued a show cause notice to Ramadas, who also serves as a student leader, on March 7, citing concerns about his activism. According to the forum’s statement, the registrar specifically cited his involvement in the January Parliament March in Delhi and his social media post urging the viewing of the documentary “Ram Ke Naam” as an “‘anti-national’ act”.
“Ram Ke Naam,” a National Film Award-winning documentary from 1992 by filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, throws light on Hindutva groups’ efforts to build a Ram temple on the former site of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya.
The students’ group emphasized that the video had already been shown at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, is publicly available, and has even been broadcast by the state channel Doordarshan. The forum accused the present TISS administration of attempting to silence voices, even online, over what students can share and discuss.
The Parliament March, organized by student groups to oppose the 2020 National Education Policy, was declared a target of the administration’s attempt to crush dissent against the BJP government by suspending Ramadas and banning him from campus for two years.
Furthermore, the forum emphasized the institute’s accusation against Ramadas for organizing the annual Bhagat Singh Memorial Lecture on campus with “controversial speakers,” including renowned academics and human rights advocates such as Ramon Magsaysay Awardees P Sainath and Bezwada Wilson.
The forum alleged that a crackdown on student voices resisting the policies of the BJP government “is very much evident in these actions.”.
“These actions of the administration clearly highlight a trend of active support of the ruling BJP government at the cost of the future of students coming from marginalized backgrounds,” the student organization said. “The administration has been taking rampant actions against any form of student dissent, especially following its takeover by the Central government last year and the appointment of new leadership in all high-ranking administrative positions.”
On March 13, the students’ union at TISS expressed concerns over freedom of expression following restrictions on student activities and criticized the administration’s communication as unprofessional and insensitive.
