CAT topper not scared to take part in protests on JNU issue

JU student Deborshi Chanda, one of the ten candidates to have scored 100 percentile in the Common Admission Test (CAT), said on Wednesday that he will not shy away from taking part in any rally to protest against the attack on women students and teachers of JNU and similar attacks in other higher educational institutions.

Chanda is a student of electrical engineering of Jadavpur University and has presently taken admission in its School of Energy Studies in the 2019-20 session.

"I had participated in the rallies taken out by my fellow students in the varsity campus and outside. I had also joined in shouting slogans denouncing the move to silence free thinking. I have made known my stand on the issue and will do so in future too.... I am not afraid," the young man told PTI.

Chanda had scored a perfect 100 percentile in CAT, the results of which were announced few days back and is the only candidate from West Bengal to have achieved the feat.

To a question about JU students taking the lead in the series of protests against the attack on JNU, Jamia Milia students and against Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the past one month, he said "I am with them. I am proud of my friends in JU and my institution.

"However, it would be wrong to assume that only we (JU students) are in the forefront of protests. Students of other higher educational institutions have also taken out protest rallies and at times we have taken out joint rallies," he said.

Chanda criticised the alleged police lathicharge on agitating JU sudents on Monday evening when SFI activists and members of other Left outfits of JU took out a rally near the university against the attack on students in JNU and came face to face with a march taken out by the BJP.

"How can police beat up students who are holding a democratic protest ?" he wondered.