A queer student named Pratik Permey was allegedly barred from an event at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). Permey, who hails from the northeast of India was elected as the student union leader at TISS in November last year.
Pratik Permey, a second-year master’s student at the Centre for Health and Mental Health, was invited to attend the Ambedkar Memorial Lecture to represent the student union and sit on the dais panel.
Permey claimed that the event scheduled for 6 pm on March 25, started an hour late, and minutes before the event started, a faculty member told the student union leader that “for an event like this, you cannot wear something like that.”
Jeremy A Rinker, an associate professor from the University of North Carolina, US was to speak on ‘Ambedkar Nationalism, And the Need for Contemporary Collaborative Activism’ at the said event held on March 25.
Speaking to the Times of India Permey stated that after the incident they felt humiliated and left the venue. Following the incident Permey claimed to have not been in a mental state to talk about the incident for two days.
In a series of tweets, Pratik Permey detailed the matter and claimed that it was a Professor who made some comments about the dress Permey was wearing.
“Jai Bhim to all the Ambedkarites, The incident was quite shocking to me and the fact that it happened in our institution was all the more surprising. It was actually a professor who made the comment. I would not blame the whole of TISS,” Permey tweeted.
Permey added that it was a group of PhD scholars who were discussing the clothes and expressions of the TISS student union leader.
“Many professors have stood in solidarity and expressed their concerns and support for me. And from the recent conversations and revelations, apparently, a group of PhD students were involved in the discussion of my clothes and expression,” Permey wrote in another tweet.
Pratik Permey who hails from Gogamukh in Assam demanded ‘justice of some kind in some way’. A believer of the ideology of Jyotiba Phule, Savitribai, Dr Ambedkar, and Periyar, Permey wants this ‘humiliating incident’ to never happen to anyone again in the future.
Many professors have stood in solidarity and expressed their concerns and support for me. And from the recent conversations and revelations, apparently a group of PhD students were involved in the discussion of my clothes and expression.
— Pratik Permey (@pratikpermey) March 28, 2023
“I am still not sure who to blame and who not to. I just want justice of some kind in some way. I really believe in the ideologies of Ambedkar, Jyotiba, Savitribai, and Periyar. I don’t want this humiliating incident to ever happen with anyone ever again,” Permey tweeted.
I am still not sure on who to blame and who not to. I just want justice of some kind in some way. I really believe in the ideologies of Ambedkar, Jyotiba, Savitribai and Periyar. I don’t want this humiliating incident to ever happen with anyone ever again.
— Pratik Permey (@pratikpermey) March 28, 2023
On Tuesday, Pratik Permey who identifies as a gender-fluid person posted a video on Instagram wherein the Queer activist spoke against the alleged discrimination and asserted that “my queerness was not allowed to be represented.” However, the TISS student union leader somehow dragged the so-called ‘Brahminical patriarchy’ into the issue.
“I do not abide by the Brahminical Patriarchal understanding of curbing the agency of a person. Forcing them to follow the same set of ideas revolving around purity and pollution,” Pratik Permey added in a long caption of the said Instagram post.
According to Permey, a complaint regarding the discrimination would be forwarded to the institute’s Women and Gender Development Cell.
It is notable that in 2018, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai became the first campus in the country to have a gender-neutral hostel.
