Hyderabad: More students join hunger strike at tiss

Hyderabad: Students who were on a hunger strike at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) are gaining more power with many other student organisations joining their struggle and people coming forward and standing with them in solidarity.

The students have been protesting since the past one week and have now started a hunger strike as the administration was not rolling back the decision to discontinue BA social science course in their campus.

All India Students Association (AISA) has expressed its solidarity and said that it would stand with the TISS Hyderabad students. In a recent move, Radhika Vemula and Raja Vemula were also at the TISS in support to the students protest.

 The problem began on October 31, when the TISS administration advertised for admissions to various courses in the upcoming 2019-20 academic year, but not for BA in Social Science. Also, it decided to discontinue the residential facility in the Rajendra Nagar campus, thus making TISS Hyderabad a non-residential campus.

Students said that “The decision was taken unilaterally and autocratically by the TISS administration, without any consultation with the student community – one of the major stakeholders in any university. Since then we have been protesting against these decisions, demanding the be revoked immediately.”

Despite talks, the director has refused to roll back the decision to discontinue BA in Social Science and the residential facility.

 Students are planning to continue their struggle till they get justice and have been continuously garnering support from various student associations.