The Tata Institute of Social Sciences on October 8 issued a show-cause notice to Arjun Sengupta, an assistant professor at the School of Gender and Livelihoods at its Hyderabad campus, for allegedly encouraging protesting students, reported The Indian Express on Sunday.

This came after Sengupta spoke at a protest organised by student groups on October 4, expressing solidarity with Dalit student leader and PhD scholar Ramadas Prini Sivanandan who had been suspended in April for “activities not in interest of nation”.

Sengupta described the memorandum issued to him as “factually unfounded, unconstitutional, and illegal” and said he was denied an in-person hearing in the matter.

The notice received by him states: “A widely circulated Instagram video, wherein [Sengupta] can be seen with about 20 students, holding placards, and encouraging Progressive Students Forum (PSF) and Progressive Students Organisation (PSO) for their acts of raising voice against discontinuance letter issued in the month of June, 2024 to Tata Education Trust (TET) faculty and staff and in support of one suspended student namely Ramadas KS.”

According to The Wire, about 119 teaching and non-teaching staff whose positions are funded by the Tata Education Trust are unsure if their contracts will be renewed after December.

The memorandum to Sengupta said that the Progressive Students Forum was not a recognised body and accused him of contempt of court, given the ongoing litigation in the Bombay High Court concerning Sivanandan’s suspension.

“Dr. Sengupta has been appointed to conduct teaching, research and field action research to motivate the students to do their best in academics and related knowledge gaining exercise,” the show-case notice also states. “However, contrary to that he is seen promoting activities that have no connection with any of the tasks meant for a teacher.”

It also accused Sengupta of “sloganeering, inciting, and encouraging students present there for similar protests, which may disturb the peaceful academic environment of the Campuses of TISS”.

Sengupta responded to the notice on October 13.

“The said video presents a section of a talk I gave at a students’ gathering organised by the Ambedkar Students’ Association [ASA] and the Progressive Students’ Organisation [PSO] on October 4 at the TISS Hyderabad Off-Campus,” he said, according to The Indian Express.

Sengupta added: “In the said video, I clearly mention all three major students’ organisations present across TISS campuses – PSF, ASA and PSO – as a recognition of the fact that there is today a generalised concern and anxiety amongst the TISS student body as a whole about the academic implications of a large number of their teachers being terminated post December 31, 2024.”

“Contrary to what is alleged…and as is evident from even a cursory viewing of the video, it is grossly untrue that I was ‘sloganeering’ or ‘inciting’ anyone during my talk,” Sengupta also said.

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