TISS Mumbai Students Protest Suspension of PhD scholar, Allege Police Action on Campus

Mumbai: Students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) have alleged police action when they staged a protest during a convocation ceremony on its campus here against the suspension of PhD scholar Ramadas Prini Sivanandan.

The students staged the protest on Friday also in solidarity with 119 teachers and staff "who may lose their jobs by December 31 or have already lost," said a statement signed by Sara Bardhan, silver medallist, MA in Urban Policy and Governance, Sreyas Valsan, MA in Urban Policy and Governance, and others.

They alleged that even though the protest was carried out peacefully without disrupting any other proceedings, the administration repeatedly discouraged students from exercising their right to free speech and many police personnel were called to the venue of the convocation ceremony.

"We chose to raise banners in solidarity with Ramadas Prini Sivanandan, a Dalit PhD scholar and a student activist who is denied access to education for the last 156 days due to the arbitrary suspension, and 119 teachers and staff who may lose their jobs by December 31 or have already lost," the students said.

When Arghya Das, graduating student of MA in Women's Studies, was registering his protest by raising a placard seeking revocation of Sivanandan's suspension and job security for teachers and staff, he was forcibly taken off the stage by guards and police, they claimed.

The police kept Das in custody away from the Convocation Hall till the ceremony ended and all degree certificates were taken away, the students alleged.

In April, the TISS suspended Sivanandan for two years for allegedly indulging in activities which are "not in the interest of the nation" and referred to instances like him participating in a protest in Delhi under the PSF-TISS banner.

A Mumbai police official said there was some issue over suspension of Sivanandan inside the TISS campus and an internal enquiry has been ordered by the institute.

An inquiry will be conducted on Monday, he said, adding that the police have not got any formal complaint.

Police are keeping a vigil on the developments inside the campus, the official added.