![](https://hrdaindia.org/assets/upload/462773080Ramdass.jpeg)
The Human Rights Defender Ramadas received a show cause notice from the Registrar's office on 7th March 2024 implicating his activism as repetitive misconducts and anti-national activities. The notice was sent on the HRDs email id as well and his personal email id. The HRD acknowledged the receipt on March 8, 2024. The Committee met on April 04, 2024 in Vice Chancellor, TISS office at 04.30 PM to consider the case of the HRD.
The Committee in its findings stated that the HRD Ramadas violated be clause 9 of the honour code of the institute by participating in the Parliament march which was organised by a joint platform of 16 student’s organisations on 12th January, 2024. The HRD participated in the march at his personal level as a Central Executive committee member of the Student’s Federation of India (SFI) and as a member of Progressive Students Forum (PSF). The committee concluded that the HRD participated in the said demonstration and expressed his view because of his status being a PhD student at TISS. The Committee was aggrieved by the fact that the HRD views are creating an impression among the general public that view of the HRD are the views of the TISS. The committee in its report cited a circular dated 14th June, 2024 bearing No. Registrar/Circular/2023 and held that participation of HRD in the parliament march on 12th January, 2024 badly affected the reputation of TISS among the general public and the HRD violated the code of conduct of the institute.
The report further stated that “he supposed to focus on his academics but, his act of participating in demonstrations, organising unapproved events, screenings, holding sitting, in addition to being illegal, is also wastage of limited resources of the Institute.” Based on this the committee held that the HRD's conduct is “motivated with personal political ambitions and to further the same, the Institute’s name and resources in being misused by HRD".
The report concluded that the HRD by organising parliament March on 12th January, 2024, screening banned documentaries, calling controversial speakers for Bhagat Singh Memorial Lectures, holding sit-ins in from the directors Bungalow at the late night, etc are the actions which must be investigated by law enforcement agencies as Anti national activities. The committee declared that law enforcement agencies can take legal actions as per process and institute and TISS have no objection for the same.
The Committee recommended suspension for the period of two years and his entry to be debarred across all the campus of the Tata Institute of Social sciences.
HRDA strongly believes that the suspension of the HRD for participating in a protest organised by the joint platform of 16 student organisations, screening a national award-winning documentary 'Ram ke Naam' by Anand Patwardhan that has been officially screened in TISS multiple times & publicly available in YouTube, inviting well-known academics, scholars and human rights activists of a memorial lecture and peacefully holding sit-in in campus as ‘anti-national’ along with issuing no objection for law enforcement agencies to take legal action is an act of reprisal for his activism.
Human Rights Defenders' Alert - India urge the National Human Rights Commission to take cognisance of the case and United Nations Special Procedures to issue a public statement condemning the suspension of the Human Rights Defender and implicating his activism as repetitive misconducts and ‘anti-national activities’.
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