Mumbai: TISS students’ union demands scrapping of FIR against Urvashi

Statement issued on Thursday says sedition is an out-dated law, which has and continues to be used as a political tool against minorities, human rights defenders and civil rights activists

Mumbai: TISS students' union demands scrapping of FIR against Urvashi

Urvashi Chudawala

The students' union of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) issued an official statement on Thursday demanding that the FIR against Urvashi Chudawala be dropped. It has further condemned the efforts to malign the image of the institute and its students and said that participating in protests and rallies was their constitutional right.

There has been a lot of confusion on the campus since Urvashi was charged with sedition for raising slogans at the Pride March at Azad Maidan on February 2. However, the official statement from the union has clearly spelled out their stand on the issue.

The statement states, "A Supreme Court judgment says that only raising slogans doesn't lead to sedition until and unless there is an implicit threat of violence. Using these charges to curb the dissenting voices of the oppressed is highly condemnable. Sedition itself is an out-dated colonial law, which has and continues to be used as a political tool against minorities, human rights defenders, civil rights activists and other dissenters. This is clearly politically motivated and the BJP is trying to play with our education, career and future. In the same gathering, Urvashi had also read out the Preamble. This negates all claims of being anti-national. We vehemently condemn the political persecution of a young trans student, who has been targeted on national media. Such kind of targeting of trans students also amounts to hate crime."

Condemning the narrative of the media, the statement further reads, "Most of them violate the privacy of individuals by sharing their pictures and disclosing gender. This not only damages people's personal lives but also goes to show that there is no active discourse in the media regarding reporting on trans issues with sensitivity."

The Adivasi Students' Forum, Ambedkarite Students' Association, Muslim Students' Forum, Muslim Youth Voices, North-East Students' Forum, Progressive Students' Forum, Spaceless Collective and Queer Collective have come out in support of the statement.

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