Bombay City Civil Court today said that TISS students could continue their peaceful protests without any obstruction to daily activities of the administration and institute. The court was presiding over a civil suit filed by the TISS administration in which it accused students of “causing obstruction” with their strike and illegal activities.

The TISS administration sent a legal notice on March 27 to 6 of its students asking them to appear before the City civil court today. It alleged in the suit that students were obstructing the institute’s administrative work and daily activities. The institute also sent memos to 15 other students just before sending the legal notice and gave a “final call” to stop the protests failing which, legal action would be initiated against them.

Reportedly the notice was issued in the name of six students, but was actually served to only one student, that too late at night making it difficult for them to prepare for the court’s proceedings. Interestingly, the lawyer appearing on behalf of TISS administration insisted that the matter be heard for urgent reliefs. The lawyer argued that the demands of the TISS students “did not fall under the jurisdiction of TISS” and that they had already assured the students that they “won’t evict” them even if they did not pay the dining charges.

The lawyers appearing for the defendants requested that time be granted for filing an affidavit in reply and also informed the court that the settlement meeting that was to take place earlier today was cancelled by the administration for reason that the matter was sub-judice. Upon enquiry from the court they informed that the students were only carrying out peaceful protests.

The lawyer appearing for TISS administration, however, said that the students were obstructing the regular activities of the court and said that they need to be injuncted immediately. He further added that students had held officers captive and vandalised property and asked the court to direct the students to stop the protests immediately. However this was denied by the TISS students who were in attendance.

After hearing the parties, the court decided to not interfere with peaceful protests of the students. However, it directed that the students should not cause any obstruction in the daily activities of the administration and the institute or use violent means.

Commenting on this, Fahad Ahmed, General Secretary of Students Union, TISS Mumbai, said that the administration should resolve the issue through a dialogue. “We have been peacefully protesting for the last 36 days and today the court also did not oppose our strike. The TISS administration must resolve the issue through a dialogue, not by booking false cases against students.” Ahmed further said that the ongoing strike is “Fight for social justice” and will continue until the institution agrees to the students’ charter of demands.

Another student, Ajmal Khan said that students were feeling positive about the court proceedings today, he added, “The idea behind the legal notices sent to some of us was to demonize us and say that only some individuals are behind the protests. They wanted to show that the protests are an outcome of a few individuals’ minds and not the mandate of the general body.” He added that the students have been ready to have a dialogue with the administration for a long time, but TISS are not responding to students’ communication. “They even cancelled a meeting that was supposed to happen today” he added. “Actually these are diversionary tactics from the institute. Why don’t they inform us about the actual progress made on our demands,” he asked.

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Notably, the struggle by the students has compelled the UGC to release an arrear of as much as Rs. 11 crore which will be allocated to the TISS administration. Though this amount will not go towards the payment of the fee exemptions or scholarships.
 
Also, the TISS administration hasn’t yet furnished details of the part of their finance which makes it possible to have fee exemptions for GOI-PMS scholars.
 
However, the students said that the meeting with UGC officials was fruitful and a ten members committee was formed with selected members from the General Body of the protesting students. Other committees included the GOI PMS Working Group, Empowered Committee of faculty, a meeting was also held with the Registrar and Dy. Registrar of TISS.
Students have decided to continue the strike till all their demands are met.
 
Students in the meeting have also clarified that the burden of deficits incurred by institute shouldn’t be put on the students, especially the GOI PMS students since it’s a clear flouting of the affirmative action. Students also demanded that the Institute along with the UGC should come up with a plan of action for the students.
 
In this regard, CJP, Sabrang’s partner organisation has also initiated a public campaign to support the struggle of the students. You can sign the petition here
 
The full press release can be read below:
 
PRESS RELEASE I – 17th March 2018
 
TISS STUDENTS PROTESTS HELP TISS ADMINISTRATION TO GAIN 11 CRORES FROM UGC; ALLOCATED AMOUNT WILL NOT HELP GOI PMS SCHOLARS ; STRIKE ENTERS 25TH DAY, NO PLANS TO CALL OFF THE STRIKE !
 
The ongoing strike at Tata Institute Of Social Sciences has entered day 25th today. The UGC announced the release of 4.7 cr and 6.35 Cr towards arrears. The clearance of arrears have come after 24 days of TISS students protests. Although the amount of around 11 Cr. will not be going towards resolving the GOI PMS issue of providing fee waivers for SC, ST, OBC students of current and future batches .
 
It has become abundantly clear that we have clearly shown that agitation by students does have the strength to bent the system. A 25 days strong resistance has made the UGC to fly down to TISS and hear our demands. We do understand that the release of arrears have nothing to do with our demands and GOI PMS scholarship issue but we must state that our protests have helped the TISS administration despite continuous targeting of protesting students. Now the UGC and TISS administration should come up with a solution for which the students are fighting.
 
In spite of continuous demands by the students the TISS administration has not furnished any data to the students regarding what is the exact amount needed to facilitate scholarships and waivers for GOI PMS scholars.
 
The students delegates have demanded from the UGC that the Non Salaried Maintenance grant be increased. Also one of the main demand made by the students body to the UGC is that the UGC should come up with the component under the Non Salaried Maintenance Grant, where funds can be allocated to resolve waivers/scholarship related issues.
 
Dr.Sunita Siwach,Joint Secretary, UGC who is also a part of MHRD Committee held a meeting with students delegates from the General Body at the TISS Campus in Mumbai on Friday. A ten members committee was formed with selected members from the General Body of the protesting students. Other committees included the GOI PMS Working Group, Empowered Committee of faculty, a meeting was also held with the Registrar and Dy. Registrar of TISS.
 
During the meeting the demand charter regarding GOI PMS issues were discussed along with other issues like Non Net Fellowship and closing down of certain centres . The student delegates have stated that the meeting with the UGC was fruitful and the students have put forward solid arguments in support of their demand charter, based on data received through RTIs filed by students.
 
So far the UGC disburses amount under two heads Plan and Non Plan. Under the Plan head funds are allocated for the salaries. Where as the Non Plan head goes towards other expenditure of the institute, which is the institute is mandated to spend funds towards specific expenditures. Funds allocated under both these heads do not go towards any funding related to scholarships and waivers and hence the students have demanded that a separate component too be added to facilitate funds towards students scholarships/waivers.The students body also argued that the TISS should be considered at par with other Central Universities, since it has one of the highest NAAC grading.
 
In this meeting no concrete solutions have been been offered as yet. But we have resolved to keep the strike going until all our demands are met by the UGC and the TISS administration.Post the meeting the General Secretary of the Student Union also handed over the charter of demand to the Joint Secretary of the UGC.
 
Students in the meeting have also clarified that the burden of deficits incurred by institute shouldn’t be put on the students, especially the GOI PMS students since it’s a clear flouting of the affirmative action. So far the administration has not clarified or come up with a figure of cost incurred to support GOI PMS students The UGC has asked TISS committee which includes faculty and student delegates to furnish a plan of action report by 31st March for further action.
 
We believe that our demands have been legit and can be met by the institute through various means. It is the institute’s responsibility to mobilise resources to support the section of students who are in utmost need of institutional support. The strike shall continue till demands are met.
 
Student Unity Long Live.
Struggle for Social Justice Long Live.
 
https://www.sabrangindia.in/article/education-constitutional-right-says-adv-prakash-ambedkar-calls-rally-vidhan-sabha-support
https://www.sabrangindia.in/ann/latest-tiss-tiss-admin-will-visit-guwahati-campus-hunger-strike-continues-third-day
 

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The militancy on display and the support garnered is largely due to the justness of the issues being raised by the students – issues affecting the most marginalised sections of the students – the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Caste (SC, ST and OBC) students and those from poorer backgrounds who are unable to afford the constantly rising fees of this elite institution. (Another article in this issue in Print by Ajmal Khan details the policies and practices of the Central and State governments and the TISS administration that have led to the demands of the present agitation)

 
Demands of the Students
The demands of the strike placed before the TISS administration in a letter of TISS-Students Union (TISS-SU) dated 25^th February 2018 are:

1. Immediate retraction of the notification of the administration that all GOI-PMS (Government of India – Post Matric Scholarship) 2016-18 and 2017-19 should pay Fees (Tuition, Dining Hall and Hostel fees)
2. Immediate rollback of the notification for payment of fees by GOI-PMS 2018-20 batch students from the website
3. Scholarship/Waiver applicable to GOI-PMS SC and GOI-PMS ST students should be applied to GOI-PMS OBC students also
4. Deal with the concerns of students with disability
5. Exemption of Dining Hall and Hostel fees for students of the BA MA integrated programme of the Off Campuses from 2015 onwards
6. Symbolic representation of the Office of Dean SPO (Student Protection Office) from SC ST OBC category
7. No punitive action be taken against students, individually or collectively

During the course of the strike, a memorandum from the TISS-SU was presented on 28^th February 2018 to Thawar Chand Gehlot, the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, which raised the following demands:

1. Increase the amount of the GOI-PMS Scholarship to the SC/ST and OBC NC ( for B.A./M.A./M.Phil and Ph.D.) as per the expenses made by institute on each student and disburse it in advance
2. Write a letter to the head of the institute, TISS Mumbai requesting to continue the support to all GOI-PMS students and support the institute across all campuses (Mumbai, Tuljapur, Hyderabad and Guwahati) for all the courses with reference to the students from SC/ST and OBC NC ( B.A./M.A./M.Phil and PhD).
3. Issue guidelines to all the universities including TISS to set up an SC, ST, and OBC Cell/Student Protection Office with the appointment of licensing officer/Dean who must belong to SC/ST/OBC category to prevent discrimination against SC/ST or OBC students at the University/Institute.
4. Uniform income ceiling should be implemented throughout the states for the scholarship, as the prescribed Rs. 2.5 Lakhs ceiling by Union Government is not followed by every state.
5. All the OBC NC students get 100% scholarship.
6. Special attention of the ministry to the lives of the students particularly belonging to the SC/ST and OBC.
7. Fellowship notifications for the RJNF (SC/ST/OBC) and Maulana Azad fellowships for the M.Phil and PhD students from SC/ST/OBC and Minorities should be issued on time and  the fellowships should be disbursed on time.
8.  

Students’ Unity and Struggle
As is amply clear from the above demands, the focus of the demands concerned the rights of the most marginalised student sections. However all the students spread over all four campuses came out in united action. What was initially a call by the TISS Students Union (SU) for a one day University Strike Across TISS campuses on 21^st February, 2018 swiftly built up into an indefinite struggle for the implementation of the above demands.
These demands had been under discussion over some years with various committees of the SU, but were merely dragging on without any solution in sight. Once the call for agitation was given, the mass of students quickly swung into action with the determination not to retreat unless the demands were conceded.

Tactics of TISS Administration
In the face of such determination from the students, the TISS administration started using several means direct, as well as devious, to derail the students movement. The former Director, S. Parasuraman, came out on the first night itself to address the students with the sole intent of forcing them into submission. Without making the slightest attempt at dialogue with the students, he announced that a favour had been done to them for the last fourteen years. He warned of ‘serious trouble’ and threatened the students with withholding of degrees and denial of jobs. His efforts bore no fruit and only earned him the jeers and boos of the students.

Meanwhile a systematic misinformation campaign was kept up by the administration. The genuine problems of the students were presented as baseless claims. The spontaneous upsurge of the student body was attempted to be shown to be the creation of a motivated elements with ulterior political ambitions. These tactics too proved of no consequence before the unity of the students.

Opportunism and Betrayal by a section of Student Union leadership

The next move was to create a division among the students by co-opting an opportunist section of the SU leadership. It appears as if some of the union office bearers had, from the start of the agitation, maintained a covert alliance with the administration, with the aim of keeping the doors open for some kind of compromise. This was resisted by the General Body of the students, who refused to accept closed door negotiations with a select few, and demanded that the administration state their position before the General Body.

When the administration was unable to convince the General Body in any way, they started overtly using other channels (read agents) in the student body to spread confusion and divisions and breakdown the students resistance. The betrayers even went to the extent of signing an ‘agreement’, which was used by the administration to declare that the strike had been ‘called off’ by them.

These betrayers landed themselves in the unenviable position of being rejected outright, not only by the students of TISS-Mumbai, but also by those of the other campuses. The extent of their pure arrogance and opportunism could be seen in the fact that they had attempted to ‘sign’ away the strike without consulting either the students they were supposed to be representing or the representatives of the other campuses whom they had called on strike in the first place.

Fig leaf of Social Justice phraseology

“Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Student’s Union 2017-18
 Mumbai ·
Dear all,
This is regarding the mass circulation of a post titled “CHALO TISS” proposed to be taking place on 5th March 2018 at TISS Main Campus Gate. We, the Students’ Union 2017-18, want to *clarify that this message is in no way endorsed by the union*. A highly politicized narrative of TISS Strike has been circulated by some people to mislead the issues of demands. It’s our humble request to anyone concerned to not attend the said event. In case of any conflict, TISS Students’ Union will not be responsible for the same. We as Students’ Union 2017-18, condemn the event and the act. It must be further noted that we are happy to see the kind of support the Students’ body has given and also, appreciate and acknowledge, the historic win achieved during the protest.
– TISS Students’Union 2017-18”

 This step has been strongly condemned in sharp words by different ideological factions on the campus upholding left and Ambedkarite politics (especially students who emphasised that they weren’t associated with ASA) and by students belonging to different sections such as SCs, STs, OBCs, Religious, Ethnic and other minorities belonging to various oppressed classes.

 While the students of all campuses are determined to march ahead to achieving their demands, the fifth columnists in their ranks are plotting to break the back of the movement. Movements are our own road to self discovery and emancipation, movements bring people together, movements suggest a way into the future. The success of a movement is not easy to judge, it is not a cricket match.

What matters is the willingness of the people to take it through to the end. And this time, the students have clearly said, “The Fight is not Over until it’s Over!”

This article was first published on Aaghaaz
 

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Through January 2016, the campus of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai  was reverberating with slogans against Brahminwaad, and the allegedly highhandedness of the Ministry for Human Resources Development (MHRD ministry and the administration of the Hyderabad Central University administration as were and are campuses all over the country. Suddenly, in the midst of this, on January 25, 2016, posters and banners of an event by Rajiv Malhotra titled ‘Sanskrit and Sanskriti’ appeared on the main campus gate of TISS, announcing the event.
 
On January 26-27, 2016, students at the TISS, received an email invitation to a talk organised by ‘a group of students’ titled ‘Breaking India: Return of Colonialism inside India through Intellectual Elite’. Neither the banners nor emailed event posters mentioned the name of the organisers or the moderator for the event. No invitation was sent to the TISS faculty. This was unusual; there was no agenda for academic discussion or engagement.
 
On the website of Rajiv Malhotra, in the section that announced his India itinerary, he had declared that he had been invited to the TISS by the Students’ Union. This has been officially denied by the Students’ Union subsequently. The Director, has been quoted on Malhotra’s blog site as having given permission for the event to a group of students, clarifying that it was not organised by the Students’ Union.
 
Most of the attendees to this event reportedly consisted of outsiders. Several outsiders and uniformed policemen were posted outside the venue doors at the time of the event.
 
The speaker spoke at length about America and what he described as American Orientalism. He spoke of how British orientalism has been replaced by American orientalism although the period of colonialism was officially over. The speaker did not allude to any Indian context of his theory, or his latest book titled ‘The Battle for Sanskrit’ or about Indian philosophy.
 
At the end of the lecture, several students raised their hands to ask questions. One of these raised the issue of plagiarism having been proved against the speaker. The lengthy response to the plagiarism issue (by the speaker) included justification: his wanting to keep intact his good relationship with his publisher, the mention of the plagiarised author 32 times in the text instead of 35 as should have been done and the inadvertent disappearance (of the author’s name) while formatting/cut-pasting pages of his book before he sent it to the publisher. This was on January 29, 2016.
 
On January 30, 2016, around 3 am, TISS faculty received a mail from a Dalit student forwarded by a faculty member at TISS, with the accusation that participants from outside who were present at Rajiv Malhotra’s event passed casteist remarks to the effect that his way of questioning was clearly that of a lower caste (SC). The student sought intervention from both the faculty of TISS  and its administration.

 Source: From Rajiv Malhotra's Facebook Page, India Intinerary

In this letter, the Dalit student has drawn attention to the allegedly false complaint of molestation being made against him. In this communication, the student states that on the day of the talk by Rajiv Malhotra , that is on January 29, 2016, an incident took place during the talk organised by the few students at Old Conference hall, main campus Mumbai. Dr. Rajiv Malhotra, a self-acclaimed right wing writer, delivered a talk on the topic "Breaking India: Return of colonialism inside India trough Indian Intellectual Elite". The majority audience (of the audience) were from outside, few of the TISS students also attended the talk. The student in question also attended with a few of his friends.

During the talk he (the Dalit student) had some questions. When he asked the question a lady sitting beside him allegedly asked. “Why you are asking questions with such energy.” The student  didn't pay much attention to her. Then she asked, "What is your caste? You must belong to lower castes (SC)".  Still he states that he didn't say anything to this lady and moved further and started asking his question. Then she started shouting at him saying that "You lower caste people are bull-shit who always shout, you do not have manners of how to behave in academics' spaces".
 
After that, allegedly when the students were walking away from the hall, one of the other students asked that lady, “Why were you shouting and asking about the student’s caste?” She did not reply to that. Then our students started shouting slogans, “RSS go back.”  This was due to the ongoing controversies and the organisers attitude within the hall. Soon after that, the RSS workers who had participated (from outside TISS) started shouting slogans of “RSS Jindabad! RSS Jindabad!” Again some students responded, “RSS go back.”

During this entire exchange, one of the students from the organising team was taking a video of and another student asked that boy to stop taking same. At the time, the Dalit student in question was standing there. Thereafter the Dalit student (name with-held) learned that a girl named from the Women Centre Social Work TISS Mumbai has filed a complaint in the Trombay Police Station under section 354 alleging molestation against the Dalit boy.

The Dalit student has stated in this communication that he does not even know that girl, had never spoken to her, nor had any interaction. During the sloganeering and counter slogans, he had not seen her there.

Meanwhile, the social media pages maintained by Rajiv Malhotra and his supporters have accused the Dalit TISS student of manhandling a fellow TISS student during the event. Refuting these charges the Dalit student has tried to draw the attention of the TISS faculty and administration to the incident of caste abuse that he had to face at the event and how a false case of molestation has been filed against him.  On Malhotra’s facebook page he says, “ Leftist goons at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) filing false complaint against student who moderated, as revenge for woman filing complaint for being manhandled.”

Background on Rajiv Malhotra:

Author of several books from 2011 to 2016, two of these have been mired in controversy. Indra’s Net: Defending Hinduism’s Philosophical Unity and Breaking India: Western Interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines have drawn sharp criticisms of having plagiarised content. Andrew J.Nicholson (publisher Permanent Black) had agreed with the criticism of plagiarism and had further noted that Malhotra not only had plagiarised his book, but also "twisted the words and arguments of respectable scholars to suit his own ends." Permanent Black stated that they would welcome HarperCollins "willingness to rectify future editions".

There have been other serious academic criticisms against the author including those made by Martha Nussbaum, Jonathan Edelmann among others. But it was in May 2015 that even another Hindu-American scholar, Ananatand Rambachan took exception to Malhotra’s understanding and representation of classical Advaita. According to Rambachan, Malhotra's understanding and representation of classical Advaita is incorrect, attributing doctrines to Shankara and Swami Dayananda which are rejected by them.
 
 

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