Students organisations demand TISS administration to withdraw suspension of PhD student

NEW DELHI: Student organisations have come out in support of Ramadas Prinisivananda, a Phd student who was suspended by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Prinisivananda, a member of Student Federation of India (SFI), was suspended by TISS administration for two years for “screening a documentary ‘Ram ke Naam’ on January 26.

Condemning the TISS administration, the students demanded the notice against Ramadas to be withdrawn with immediate effect. Students’ organisations said TISS, in a notice dated March 7, makes a reference to his (Prinisivananda) role in screening the documentary. The notice calls it a "mark of dishonour and protest" against the Ram Mandir idol consecration in Ayodhya, the students’ organisations added.

The notice further read: "Your activities are not in the interest of the nation. Being a public institution, TISS cannot permit or tolerate its students indulging in such activities, which are anti-national and bring a bad name to the nation. Hence, all such activities fall under the category of serious criminal offence."

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Calling the decision a move to stifle democratic right of students, student organisation said, “This incident shows that the BJP government is hell-bent on converting all the administrative bodies of educational institutions into RSS Shakhas, where any opinion critical to the retrogressive and majoritarian ideas of RSS and BJP shall stand crushed with utmost might of the ruling regime.”

This stands especially true for those student activists belonging to the dalit community, who have time and again been targeted by the “RSS-backed university administrations”, the organisation said. “We also call upon students across the campuses to forge the largest possible unity to defeat fascist forces like RSS and BJP,” they added.