They said it”A stable is better, for there you have a donkey that carries a load and a cow that provides milk. Parliament is worse than a stable.” — Malalai Joya, suspended woman member of the Afghan parliament (June 4) “In the new knowledge-based India, the three keys to economic advancement and hence to securing the enduring self respect that the backward classes rightly seek and deserve, are education, education and more education.” — Arvind Subramanian, senior fellow, Peterson Institute of International Economics, Washington, in Business Standard (June 16/17) “I‚ve never managed to get to the end of them, despite a basic rule I have which is if you start a book you have to finish it. I‚m afraid his writing has defeated me.” — Jack Straw, the leader of Britain‚s House of Commons, on Sir Salman Rushdie‚s literary output (June 23)”In five years time in Rashtrapati Bhavan, we have all worked for transforming it into a people‚s Bhavan. I believe it should be an example to the nation. That‚s why I said enough is enough.” — President A.P.J Abdul Kalam while refusing to run for a second term as President of India (June 24)”I want children to study English, which is why I put my children in English medium schools.” — Basavaraj Horatti, Karnataka school education minister who ordered the de-recognition of over 2,200 schools for teaching in the English medium (June 26)”NCERT books on sex education are too explicit and cannot be introduced in the devbhumi of Uttarakhand. They will spoil the educational environment in schools and obstruct the development of their character. Moreover the very concept of sex education amounts to devaluation of Indian culture.” — Madan Kaushik, education minister of Uttarakhand, explaining why his government has banned sex education “Seen from the surface, an apparently untroubled India is briskly growing at the rate of 10 percent a year. Seen from down below, alongside the movement for peasants‚ rights, a new consciousness for human rights of the displaced has grown indigenously.” — Shikha Mukerjee in The Times of India (June 28)