“All of us who believe in @INCIndia are hurting from the results of the recent assembly elections. It is time to reaffirm the idea of India that the Congress has stood for and the positive agenda it offers the nation – and to reform our organisational leadership in a manner that will reignite those ideas and inspire the people.”
Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, on the Congress party’s defeat in the assembly elections in five states (March 10, twitter.com)
“Online education is the new avatar of disaster capitalism… Despite the devastating digital divide, ignoring that education is essentially a social process, UGC approved 350 online courses and allowed regular university students to ‘customise’ their courses. This potpourri portends to be a travesty of quality.”
Anita Rampal, former dean, faculty of education, Delhi University on UGC’s massive thrust on online education (Times of India, March 13)
“There is one simple thing Indian democracy will have to think about after these elections. The fact that a politics that has venom, hate, prejudice, violence, repression and deceit is not a deal breaker for voters is something to think about. This road always ends in catastrophe.”
Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, public intellectual, on the BJP’s decisive win in four state assembly elections (Indian Express, March 17)
“…some English loving and living people say we want to go back. Yes we want to go back to our roots, to know the greatness of our culture and heritage, to understand the great amount of treasure in our Vedas, our books, our scriptures… they don’t want us to know our greatness; they want us to suffer with inferiority complex… they say we are saffronising… what is wrong with saffron?”
Venkaiah Naidu, vice president, at the inauguration of South Asian Institute of Peace and Reconciliation, in Haridwar (Hindustan Times, March 20)
