St Xavier’s College has cancelled its annual Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture scheduled for August 9 pm following protest from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sangh (ABVP), an RSS affiliated.
The lecture, organised by the college’s department of inter-religious studies, was to have been delivered by Fr Prem Xalxo on “Migration for Livelihood: Hope amidst miseries.”
The ABVP told the college principal in a strongly worded letter that Fr Stanley was a prime accused in the Bhima Koregaon criminal case and was arrested under UAPA, an anti-terrorist law. Prashant Mali, ABVP secretary, Mumbai, alleged in the letter that Fr Stanley was linked to the CPI (Maoist).
A delegation of the student body submitted its written protest following which the college management called off the lecture which was to be delivered virtually. The management cited unavoidable circumstances as reason for the cancellation.
