“Those opposing the bullet train project should travel on bullock carts. We won’t mind.”

Prime minister Narendra Modi responding to the Congress party’s criticism of the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train project, addressing an election rally in Gujarat (December 3)

“Higher education — particularly, the idea of a liberal university — is in crisis… Possibly, Jawaharlal Nehru University — some sort of intellectual embodiment of the ‘socialist’ legacy of Nehruvian progressive science and secular humanism — does no longer fit into the changing ethos of technocratic reasoning and religious nationalism.”

Avijit Pathak, professor of sociology at JNU (Deccan Herald, December 26)

“Over more than a century, our system of schooling has honed its tools to oppress and defeat the adolescent. The tool used to subdue the rebellious adolescent mind is the Board examination. Fear of failing in it and thereby closing all doors to a worthwhile future figures in many autobiographies written during the colonial period… The class X examination continues to ‘fail’ millions every summer.”

Krishna Kumar, former director of NCERT (The Hindu, December 29)

“Many Americans are now, rather blasphemously, asking why their country does not follow the European model of public delivery… Private education, such as it is in America, dis-incentivises higher studies as they have become so expensive. A 2012 survey showed that seven out of ten college seniors in the US have student loans amounting to as much as $30,000 per person. Investing so much for an uncertain future turns many Americans away from universities.”

Dipankar Gupta, well-known sociologist, on ‘American lessons for India’ (Times of India, December 30)

“I do not want cadres. I want watchdogs.” 

Rajnikath, Tamil movie superstar announcing his entry into politics (December 31)