Rabeeha Abdurehim has declined to accept her graduation gold medal in solidarity with the students who are fighting the amended citizenship act and the propsed NRC.

“It was something I could do in solidarity with all the students who bore the brunt of the security forces’ crackdown for protesting at Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University and other institutions over the act and the NRC,” Rabeeha, a topper from Pondicherry University, told The Telegraph on Monday. She accepted the degree certificate.

Rabeeha said she told the dignitary who handed her the certificate that she would not accept the gold medal to express solidarity with the protesting students.

She also told the dignitary that she had earlier been led out of the auditorium and not allowed to re-enter until President Ram Nath Kovind had left. The President is the Visitor of the university.

“I was seated in the hall an hour before the President’s arrival, as was required. But a woman from the President’s security came up to me and asked me to go out with her for a minute. She then locked me out without any explanation,” Rabeeha said.

This newspaper could not elicit a response from Rashtrapati Bhavan till Monday night.

Rabeeha said local policemen had tried to calm her down. “I am so thankful to the local police, many of whom came up to me and said even they were shocked to see that,” said the girl from Kozhikode in Kerala who completed her mass communication postgraduate course in 2018.

Rabeeha absolved the Pondicherry University of any wrongdoing. “This is not about the university, although I was not told why I was kept out.”

She added: “It was just that I wanted to sacrifice something in solidarity with the students who have risked everything to stand up for a cause.”

University registrar B. Chitra said she had no information about what really happened. “I was busy organising all the certificates and medals when I saw her saying something when she got on the stage,” Chitra said.

She said she could not hear what Rabeeha was telling the dignitary who was handing over the certificates after the President had left.

“Sometime later, I got to know that something had gone wrong and that this student had been sent out. By the time I could free myself and check on her, she had left the hall,” the registrar said.

Rabeeha feels that the President’s security may have done a background check on all the students due to be at the event. “I have been very active with my comments on social media against several issues. That could be the reason I was locked out,” she said.

Another master’s student had recently declared she would boycott the convocation of the Pondicherry University in protest against the amended citizenship act.

Rabeeha, who has been working as a copywriter with an advertising agency, took to Facebook to explain why she had refused the gold medal.

“This is my way of showing the world what education means to us youths, not medals and certificates but learning the message of unity, peace and standing up against injustice, fascism and bigotry.

“Isn’t that what education is all about? We need to stand up for everyone’s rights.”

Asked if she had thought of boycotting the event as the members of the students’ council did, Rabeeha said: “I wanted to be there since I had worked very hard for that certificate. But I also wanted to do something in solidarity with the protesting students who had to face so much difficulty.”

She lauded all those who had stood up to the violence unleashed by the policemen. “I see that Ayesha (Renna) and Ladeeda (Sakhaloon) have become heroes,” she said, referring to the two students from Kozhikode who had stood up for their friends at Jamia.