Should students receive scholarships or sticks? asks Debrito

Students in this country should not face violence at varsities at any cost, said Father Francis Debrito, president of the 93rd All India Marathi Literary Meet, at Osmanabad in Maharashtra on Friday.

In an indirect reference to the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, he said "we will not sit quiet" if such attacks continued.

The noted Marathi writer and environmental activist was delivering his presidential address on the first day of the meet.

"Should students be awarded scholarships, degrees or should they be attacked with sticks?" he asked.

"We will not sit quiet if the heads of our students are being smashed. We don't care about the consequences," he added.

"Farmer suicides, droughts, unemployment, sick industry, declining economy, these are the important issues our country is grappling with. But they are being ignored," Debrito added.