Mumbai: Students, alumni of TISS demand revocation of appointment of registrar

This comes two weeks after Progressive Students' Forum, a body of TISS students, wrote to the governing council expressing concerns over Col Joshi's appointment as registrar in August, based on the ideas expressed by him on social media platforms.

More than 1,500 alumni as well as students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) have endorsed a petition demanding the revocation of the appointment of Colonel Rakesh Mohan Joshi as the registrar. Late on Sunday, students wrote to the governing board condemning the decision of appointing him.

This comes two weeks after Progressive Students’ Forum, a body of TISS students, wrote to the governing council expressing concerns over Col Joshi’s appointment as registrar in August, based on the ideas expressed by him on social media platforms.

In the letter to the governing council, students have alleged that Joshi “holds and has expressed various bigoted and hateful views regarding minorities, especially Muslims. He also has made sexist remarks on women and stands against reservation for marginalised students. He has expressed hateful views regarding critical democratic voices and supported police brutality on students”.

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“Appointment of people conforming to extreme hateful majoritarian beliefs on important posts, like in the case of Hyderabad Central University or Jawaharlal Nehru University, has led to violence and intimidation of student voices. His appointment creates an environment of fear in the campus. It also makes the place insecure for people from marginalised backgrounds, especially students from Muslim minority,” read the statement.

The petition added, “We fear that the appointment of R M Joshi, given his political opinions, will severely go against the interests of the entire academic community, which is already struggling to keep alive the spirit of social justice, freedom of speech and expression, and trying to organise constantly to keep hatred, Islamophobia, casteism at bay.”

The Indian Express reached out to Col Joshi, TISS director Dr Shalini Bharat, and Dean of Student Affairs Asha Banu Soletti, but they were unavailable for a comment.