Ram Temple Consecration: TISS Warns Students Against Holding Protests; IITB Plans Events to Mark Day

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has asked students not to participate in any protest on its campus here against the Ram temple consecration ceremony on January 22 and warned them of action by law enforcement agencies in case of defiance. The student union of TISS denied that any protest is being organised. A notice issued by TISS on January 18 said it was brought to the notice of the administration that a few students were planning to organise protests in the old or new campus of the institute against the Ram Janmabhoomi ‘pran pratisthan’ on January 22.

“We strictly warn students not to participate in any such activities or demonstrations, failing which the law-enforcing agency will take necessary action against students found indulging in such activities,” the notice said. In a statement issued on Saturday, the students union of TISS denied that any protest is being organised by any recognised or independent student body. It also demanded immediate withdrawal of the notice and clarification for issuing such notice.

Separately, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay will hold programmes, such as the inauguration of a ‘gaushala’ (cow shelter) and recitation of a poem based on the epic Ramayan, to mark the occasion. The IITB will inaugurate a new ‘gaushala on’ January 22 and have a recitation of ‘Geet Ramayan’, penned by noted Marathi poet G D Madgulkar, on the campus.

This, however, has drawn criticism from Ambedkar Phule Periyar Study Circle, a left-leaning students’ organisation at IITB. “A line of events being carried out by the @iitbbombay administration shows it has started crawling in front of Hindutva political forces, giving up the principle of secularism in the Indian Constitution,” the APPSC IIT-B tweeted.