Defying admin, TISS students hold Bhagat Singh Lecture series online

Both Ghosh and Mander spoke at length about the secular values underpinning the Indian republic, and the threat posed to these values by right-wing political forces. They also condemned, and expressed grave concern over the prolonged spate of violence against minorities, both Muslim and Christian, over the past decade

Mumbai: Following two days of protests after the administration at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) barred the entry of political activist Aishe Ghosh and human rights advocate Harsh Mander on campus -- to deliver the fifth instalment of the annual Bhagat Singh Memorial Lecture series (BSMLs) -- the left-leaning Progressive Students’ Forum conducted the lecture remotely, at 7pm on Thursday.

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Both Ghosh and Mander spoke at length about the secular values underpinning the Indian republic, and the threat posed to these values by right-wing political forces. They also condemned, and expressed grave concern over the prolonged spate of violence against minorities, both Muslim and Christian, over the past decade. “The denial of permission for BSML at TISS is highly condemnable,” Ghosh said at the outset.

“Bhagat Singh was a visionary of his time. He was clear that the truest meaning of freedom can’t be attained by just fighting against the British colonial powers, but also by fighting the exploitation of citizens by the majoritarian class. We see that this thought is under threat today. Singh would surely be called an anti-national in these times,” Ghosh added.

Ghosh also drew attention to the hostility against Singh’s ideology being fostered in spaces of education, with the sanction of administrators. “Ambedkar said that education is empowering not just for individuals, but that it can change whole generations. And this is what the right-wing wants to hijack, education and educational spaces, where young minds can be altered at a very fundamental level, and where the youth can be encouraged to hate on the basis of religion, caste and gender,” she said.

PSF members had protested outside the TISS director’s bungalow on Tuesday after permission was cancelled for the BSML scheduled for March 23, on the revolutionary’s 92nd death anniversary. The cancellation came just a day after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) proposed a CBI inquiry into Mander’s NGO Aman Biradari, for allegedly being in violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

Mander, for his part, did not directly speak out against TISS’ decision to first cancel the lecture, and then allow it without external speakers. “I’ve been coming to TISS for years, but today I find that my entry into your institution has been barred. Therefore we have found this way to speak to each other,” he said.

“The Nazi history of Germany is a reminder that democracy is not just majority rule, it is also the protection of minorities because the former can easily lead to fascism. In the last nine years, the Indian state is at virtual war with its Muslim population. One aspect of this is the political project to make Muslims electorally irrelevant. The other aspect is the social project, which constitutes runaway hate speech and its popularisation, including by VIPs. Even non-BJP parties have become reluctant to speak out in support of India’s 200 million Muslims, which is why I call them political orphans of the Indian republic. In Maharashtra, we’ve seen recently seen incredible displays of hate speech, attended by thousands, calling for the genocide and mass rape of India’s minorities. No one has been punished for this.

Just days before, a scheduled talk by Mander at Lucknow’s Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University had also been cancelled by the college administration.

Shalinee Bharat, director of TISS, did not respond to HT’s request for comment on Thursday.