“I am disappointed. Because, I think that Mr. Modi’s vision of taking the country forward is not possible without the right human capital. I don’t see any fundamental change in a view — common to our Left and the Right — that somehow, higher education is something to be controlled, centralised.”
Dr. Devesh Kapur, director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, on his disappointment with the Modi government’s education policy (The Hindu, December 20)
“Our problems are not those of government but of society. I think Swacch Bharat is a very fine thing. But it is not the government’s job to effect behavioural change.”
Aakar Patel, journalist and columnist (The Mint, December 20)
“There is a difference between freedom and independence because an illiterate or unemployable Indian is not free. India’s new tryst with destiny needs innovation and boldness in education.”
Manish Sabharwal, chairman Teamlease Services (India Today, December 22)
“... there were the inexplicable choices, none more so than the drafting in of Uma Bharti and Smriti Irani with full Cabinet rank. The former is at best, ineffective, while the latter has become the single-most disruptive factor in government with every week bringing in the most unpleasant of surprises.”
Anil Dharker, columnist, on the many government wrong-turns in 2014 which have diminished prime minister Narendra Modi’s lustre (Deccan Chronicle, December 28)
“One would have thought that a government supposedly committed to modernising India would be concerned about tackling illiteracy and improving educational standards... Instead, the entire education agenda of this government has descended into a series of cultural wars.”
Hasan Suroor, author and columnist, on how public discourse and debate has drowned in saffron diatribes (Outlook, December 29)