In the backdrop of the civil suit and show-cause notices issued to three students including the General Secretary, the St Xavier’s College at Mapusa held the induction ceremony of the Students Council without much ado in a simple programme attended by the elected class representatives.
However, this time there was no Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) banner or flags to celebrate the victory of students protest as claimed by General Secretary, Sahil Mahajan who is a member of the RSS-linked student organisation.
The induction ceremony began with the welcome address followed by oath-taking ceremony and ended with the singing of the college anthem in the seminar hall. The entire programme lasted around half an hour.
The Principal of the college, Blanche Mascarenhas, Administrator, Fr Tony Salema and the Vice Principals were also present for the function.
General Secretary, Sahil Mahajan said that the induction ceremony was the result of the successful andolan held by the ABVP in the college last month.
“The full college council was present for the induction ceremony which shows that the students have accepted that this was possible only because of the ABVP andolan. The college had to bow down and fix the induction ceremony because of the students’ power. It shows the ABVP andolan was successful,” Mahajan said, while addressing the media from outside the college campus.
Mahajan later told The Goan that the issue was holding the induction ceremony and not about ABVP banner or flags.
“We displayed the ABVP banner when we had won the council election. Today’s induction ceremony was a mere formality so we did not feel it desired a banner. We demanded induction and the college fulfilled it. So, it was meaningless to display the banner today. Also, today there were students who were not supporting us and they would not like to be under our banner,” Mahajan told The Goan.
He also said that they were not worried about the show-cause notices issued by the college.
“We are not going to answer the show-cause notice as the college has agreed to settlement in the court,” he said further.
