Debsmita Chowdhury walked up to the stage at the Jadavpur University convocation on Tuesday, accepted her MA degree in international relations and the gold medal, put them on a table and requested a minute’s time from pro-vice-chancellor Pradip Ghosh.
She took out a copy of a page of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, tore it up and declared: “Hum kagaz nahi dikhayenge (We will not show the papers).” Raising a clenched fist, she shouted “Inquilab Zindabad”, took her degree and medal and left the stage.
Debsmita later told The Telegraph: “The protest was not just against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act but against the whole gamut of discriminatory, anti-student policies of the Modi government.
“My protest reflects a culmination of disgust and disenchantment of the students with the Modi government as well as the role of the governor who has become a mere rubber stamp of the Centre. He has become an interfering entity.”
Debsmita said the brutal assault on the students of Jamia Millia Islamia had affected her and her protest was also against the “inhuman nature of the Modi government”.
She had reacted as an individual student and was not associated with any political organisation on or off the campus, she said. “I used the privilege of being a gold medallist that gave me some extra time on the stage and I used it to voice my protest,” she said.
