Pradip Basu said he felt the need to protest when the students approached him
A senior faculty member of the Presidency University has led a protest rally against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the NRC in Kolkata, a video of which has gone viral on social media.
The video shows Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Pradip Basu raising slogans to cheers of the students rallying behind him.
When contacted, Mr Basu said on Thursday the 4-km march from the Presidency University campus in College Street to Shyambazaar on December 24 was spontaneous and no flags of political parties of student unions were raised in it.
"We saw what happened in Jamia Millia Islamia. There is an attempt to discriminate people along religious lines. I felt the need to protest and when the students approached me, I immediately agreed to their request," he said.
An office bearer of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), Suvajit Sarkar said the students were proud to have a professor like Mr Basu.
"Sir (Prof Basu) immediately agreed to join us in the march in which 1,000 people, many of whom were not members of our students'' union, had taken part. He raised slogans against NRC and CAA which we repeated after him. It was a charged atmosphere...," Suvajit Sarkar said.
An official of the varsity said the institute would not comment on the decision of an individual to join a protest march.
"We have always stood for democratic traditions," he said.