TISS Students Protest: PSF demands immediate student union elections across all four campuses | File Photo
Mumbai: The Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF), a students’ group at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), has demanded an immediate election of students’ body at all the four campuses, alleging that the institution is functioning without a students union (SU) since the administration “abruptly suspended” it in April this year. The institute has campuses in Mumbai, Tuljapur, Guwahati and Hyderabad.
Even as a whole semester has passed in the new academic year, the student union elections have not been conducted at all the four campuses, the PSF said.
“According to the Supreme Court’s direction, the university must conduct student union election between six to eight weeks from the date of commencement of its academic session. But more than 23 weeks have passed (since the commencement of the academic session), and till now TISS admin hasn’t made any attempt to conduct SU elections,” PSF said in a statement citing the Lyngdoh committee report of 2006 which mandates all the universities to conduct student union elections in a timely manner. Institute officials declined to comment.
“Last elections were held in August 2023. The student union was elected and continued functioning till April this year, when it was abruptly suspended at the Mumbai campus after Ramdas’ suspension,” a PSF member told the Free Press Journal on condition of anonymity.
Ramadas Prini Sivanandan, a PhD scholar who is the former general secretary of PSF, had participated in a Parliament march by 16 students’ groups in New Delhi and was suspended in April for two years by the TISS administration for allegedly indulging in activities that were “not in the interest of the nation”. “Few days later, the union at the Mumbai campus was suspended,” the PSF member said.
“When the issue of terminating contracts of 115 contractual TISS employees (50 teaching and 65 non-teaching staffers) was raised by the student union and students’ groups, the student unions at the other three campuses (Hyderabad, Guwahati, and Tuljapur) were also suspended,” the PSF member added.
The PSF member alleged that “there is office space for the student union, but there is no student union on any campus”. The PSF in its statement also alleged that the TISS administration is charging fees from the students in the name of student union fees, but are not holding the elections.
“TISS admin is taking Rs 500 each from all students as Student Union Fund. If the admin is not conducting elections, where is this money going,” the students’ group asked, demanding answers from the administration.
The students group also alleged the administration of stifling decent on TISS campuses, while also accusing it of allowing “some students’ groups” to hold their events.
“In January, the TISS administration arbitrarily banned all student-led initiatives on campus. Thereafter, many student-led events, including Pappadam, Indigenous Day, Bhagat Singh Memorial Lecture, Periyar Memorial Lecture, and Budget Lecture were denied permission,” PSF said.
“Even though there were no guidelines for event permissions, some student groups at TISS were allowed to organise events on campus, while others were denied. There should not be two sets of rules for students on the same campus,” it added.
PSF demanded for holding student union elections immediately, while it also asked the administration to “provide clarity on event permission inside campus”.
