MUMBAI: A student collective on the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) campus, Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF), moved the Bhagat Singh Memorial Lecture online, after it did not get permission to invite outsiders for delivering the lecture. The topic for the event was ‘India’s Faltering Democracy – Times of Rising Hate and Threats to Secularism’. Harsh Mander, one of the speakers invited thereafter delivered the lecture online.
President of the JNU Students’ Union Aishe Ghosh was also invited for the fifth BMSL event to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of the revolutionary. The online event was held at the decided time (7pm) on Thursday. Officially, the institute officials told The Times of India, that the collective did not follow procedures laid down for students’ activities. The same collective had defied the institute’s advisories and watched the BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January on the campus.
Before starting his lecture, Mander mentioned that he had been coming to the institute many times under different directors, but today “I find my entries are barred into your (TISS) and therefore, we found ways through technology to speak.” This obstruction has come just a few days after the Ministry of Home Affairs recommended a probe against Aman Biradari, an NGO established by Mander. Ghosh also condemned the refusal of permission to hold the event.
The students speaking to The Times of India contended that they have been holding the BMSL for the last five years and never had a problem. They have alleged that the administration had imposed censorship and denied permission for external expert resource persons after the air tickets of speakers were booked. The students also rejected all ‘problematic and insensitive proposals from the current administration’.
“Events are to be organised in collaboration with the official students’ union or anchored by a faculty member or school. Several other events have been organised by students’ groups following all the guidelines and have been a success. Rules cannot be changed for one group,” said an institute official.
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