The Progressive Students’ Forum (PSF), a left-leaning students’ collective at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) has issued a strong call “to protect the academic integrity and secular values” of the institution following the release of what they term as the controversial interim study titled “Illegal Immigrants to Mumbai: Analysing Socio-economic and Political Consequences,”. The study was conducted by two TISS-Mumbai faculty members and has been facing backlash from students for allegedly promoting political interests associated with the “Sangh Parivar”.

PSF members have said that the study, which they believe lacks academic rigour and transparency, is being leveraged to support divisive rhetoric and undermine the secular principles that TISS has historically upheld. According to PSF, the study represents a departure from TISS’s longstanding tradition of rigorous, independent social science research. “Released with only 10% of its proposed 3,000-participant sample, the interim findings have been widely circulated across social media platforms and are allegedly being leveraged in WhatsApp groups to promote communal agendas ahead of the Maharashtra State Assembly elections,” a statement by PSF read.