St Xavier's principal says email to students was an academic view

After finding himself in the middle of a controversy over his email to students about what choices they needed to consider before the city goes to polls, the principal of Mumbai’s St Xavier’s college has justified his move, saying he only offered an academic perspective. Father Frazer Mascarenhas wrote an email to the students of the college in which he critiqued the Gujarat model of development, a major part of the poll campaign of the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. However, he defended his decision to CNN-IBN saying it was done as part of an academic discussion on whom students should vote for. [caption id=“attachment_1493057” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Mascarenhas has defended his email to students. Image courtesy Youtube[/caption] “The election commission had asked all college principals to encourage their students to vote. In the process I had also sent out an academic perspective,” he told the channel. “I don’t see any problem in this as I am professor of development anthropology,” he added. However, the BJP hasn’t taken too kindly to the email and has filed a complaint with the state election commission alleging that Mascarenhas misused his power.