New Delhi, March 24 -- I was a student of St Thomas College, Kozhencherry, in the early seventies when the private colleges in Kerala went on a strike. The organisation under whose auspices the strike was organised was led by Bishop Benedict Mar Gregorios of Thiruvananthapuram. I wrote a letter to the editor of The Hindu, questioning his moral authority to close down colleges. I argued that he should have found other ways of protest, certainly not at the cost of the students' right to education.

Prompt came the reply in The Hindu from Fr John Vallamattam, who was the secretary of the private college management association. He was the principal of a Catholic college. He argued that the strike was resorted to after all other attempts fai...