Over 500 TISS alumni stand in solidarity with banned PSF

MUMBAI: In a statement signed by over 500 alumni across various batches, courses and campuses of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), an appeal has been made to revoke the ban on the Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF), the institution’s oldest student-led organisation.
On August 19, the TISS administration issued an office order banning PSF, a student group that has actively represented student interests on campus since 2012. “The allegations levelled at the group are unconstitutional and threaten the fundamental rights of students within the institution,” read the statement.
The statement condemns the ban that has come after the suspension order against Dalit PhD scholar Ramadas Prini Sivanandan this year, in which more than 600 TISS alumni endorsed the statement in his support.
TISS alumni from the batches of 1979 to 2024 are now standing united to remove the “unconstitutional ban” on PSF. The ban curtails the rights of students to involve themselves in the social justice movement, which has been fundamental to the TISS ethos, says the statement.
The statement emphasises the need for the TISS administration to continue upholding the rights of students by encouraging varied student-led groups built on the values of democracy, social justice and right to dissent. In a statement issued by the TISS management last week, the management decided to review the ban and will come back with the decision in due course.