MUMBAI: Days away from the Ram Lalla Pran Pratishtha ceremony, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences’ (TISS) administration has issued a notice warning students against organising any protest or participating in it. In another circular, the institute further stated that all events at the institute (in the context of a film screening) ‘are temporarily suspended till further order’. Meanwhile, a series of events planned for the occasion, unofficially by some residents at IIT-Bombay, has met with opposition from a section of students.
The TISS circular, dated January 18, mentioned that ‘it has been brought to their notice that a few students are planning to organise protests in the old/new campus of TISS, Mumbai, against the event of Ram Janmabhoomi Pratishthan on January 22’. The circular warned of police action if students indulge in any such activities. It said, ‘We advise all students not to indulge in any such unauthorised activities and we also strictly warn students not to participate in any such activities or demonstrations, failing which the law-enforcement agency will take necessary action…’.
A student from the campus said that there was no plan about any protest concerning the Ram temple, and therefore the institute’s circular was arbitrary and ‘undemocratic’. A statement issued by a students’ collective said that campus spaces should be allowed to be platforms for dissent and for students to speak out against discrimination and authorities should refrain from engaging in such acts that suppress student voices.
An institute official, however, said that the circular was issued as a preventive step and to maintain peace on the campus. “We did not wish to create any tension between students or vitiate the academic atmosphere on the campus. There was a complaint from a section of students. No permissions have been granted and all events have been suspended for the time being,” said the official.
At IIT-Bombay, a banner has been put out announcing a series of events over the weekend leading up to the main event on Monday. A Shri Ram Darbar Shobhayatra and a Deepotsav on Sunday and also a Sundarkand Path on Monday, followed by the live telecast of the Ayodhya event. While the institute authorities mentioned that it is not an official event and no permission has been granted, the Ambedkar Periyar-Phule Study Circle on the campus has opposed it on social media. “We condemn the surrender of this institute in front of the right-wing political forces while on other hand it continues to suppress any activity by independent student collectives,” they said on social media platform X. The institute had recently come out with interim guidelines announcing that it would ‘remain apolitical in all its endeavours’ and has been using it to censor academic talks and gatherings on the campus, they pointed out. A newly created gaushala on the campus, to prevent uncontrolled cattle movement on the campus, will also be inaugurated by the BMC additional municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide and the director, Subhasis Chaudhuri on Monday.
