“I do not see any sign in our polity that assures me of an outstanding aspect of leadership. A commitment to democracy and to all other aspects related is lacking.”
L.K. Advani, BJP leader, in an interview with the Indian Express (June 18), on occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Emergency declared in 1975
“It is one thing to celebrate Yoga Day, it is another to hijack the nation by making this appear as the central priority of the government even as a farmer commits suicide every half an hour.”
Pavan K. Varma, author-diplomat, on the “over-the-top’ International Yoga Day celebrations of the BJP/NDA government (Deccan Chronicle, June 21)
“The problems in India’s education system have been reduced to access, affordability and quality, but really boil down to outcomes and aspirations. India is running to keep up with itself.”
Meeta Sengupta, education consultant, on the first-year performance of the Union HRD ministry of the BJP/NDA government (India Today, June 22)
“The Emergency is a distant memory today because the nation’s collective spine did not bend. The media stayed unbent and the judiciary remained independent. Yet we have to be wary of the robotisation of our minds into a ‘yogic’ acceptance of one drill — majoritarianism — and its masterful drill-master.”
Gopalkrishna Gandhi, distinguished professor of history and politics, Ashoka University, on ‘drill-master’ prime minister Narendra Modi (The Hindu, June 25)
“While prime minister Narendra Modi wants to make it easier to do business in India, his HRD minister is trying to make it harder to run India’s best business schools. It is baffling why instead of sorting out the mess that is India’s education system, the government is trying to fix the part of it that actually woks.”
Editorial on the proposed Indian Institute of Management Bill, 2015 which seeks to tighten Central government control over the country’s 13 IIMs (Times of India, June 29)