In response to the ongoing turmoil, the Students’ Union of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai has stood in support of student Urvashi (Kris) Chudawala, 22, and has demanded to drop the sedition charges. The union released a statement on Thursday saying, “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying to play with the education, career and future of students. We vehemently condemn the political persecution of a young transgender student, as such kind of targeting amounts to hate crime.”
Nobody noticed that Chudawala also read ‘The Preamble of the Constitution of India’ during the Mumbai Pride on February 1 at Azad Maidan but everybody just witnessed the slogan related to Sharjeel Imam, highlighted the union. A senior member of TISS Students’ Union, told The Free Press Journal, “How is Kris termed an anti-national, when Kris read the Preamble of the Constitution? Why are the politicians and police noticing selective information and filing charges? Why are they deaf to Chudawala’s act of reading the Constitution?”
Further, the students’ union stated, “Sedition is an outdated colonial law, which has and continues to be used against minorities, human right defenders, civil rights activists and other dissenters as a political tool. In the judgement of the Supreme Court (SC), only raising slogans cannot constitute sedition unless there is an implicit threat of violence.” On February 2, a FIR was lodged against TISS Student Urvashi Chudawala for raising slogans during the Mumbai Pride.
Fascist forces are shaken by students and civil society during the movement against the undemocratic, anti-secular and anti-indigenous moves of the state, read the statement.
Another member of the union said, “Participating in protest and rallies is a right given to us by the constitution in the Democratic Republic of India. Filing charges against students who protest is a clear politically motivated step to scare us and defame our institute. Neither politicians nor the police can damage the career of a student just because they participated in a protest and voiced out their opening.”
In addition, TISS Students’ Union has condemned charges on Akhil Gogoi, the leader of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), who was arrested by Assam Police on December 12 in the wake of the protests against the impending Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, Sharjeel Imam, a JNU student who has been arrested by Delhi Police over sedition charges, and students of Shaheen School in Bidar, Karnataka who are being questioned for staging a play on CAA.
A member of the union said, “We demand the release of those arrested.”
TISS Mumbai administration has not released any response over the case of the missing student Chudawala whose career is at stake.
