Osmanabad, Jan 10 (PTI) 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.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)