“The most effective way to ensure the long-term impairment of India’s entrenched Left-wing ecosystem is to throw open the education market to competition. It is also the cheapest, for it would not require expending government revenue which can be invested to improve India’s national defence and security…”

Rajeev Mantri, co-founder of the India Enterprise Council, on how to end Left domination of Indian education (Mint, February 22)

“Our education system is weighed down by decades of inefficiency and red tape. Students, parents, schools and colleges are victims of this daily malaise.”

Vivek Kathpalia, head of education practice at an international law firm, on redrafting education policy to support private education initiatives (Times of India, February 23)

“I had been asked to explain what is the proof against JNU students… I would like to say I am a practising Hindu. I am a Durga worshipper.”

Smriti Irani, Union HRD minister, in a debate on the sedition case filed against JNU students in the Rajya Sabha (February 26)

“Modern educational institutes are anathema to the Sangh Parivar because of the ingrained spirit of inquiry in these campuses. No academic study or research in democratic societies can be pursued within a narrow framework because there is nothing called the final truth.”

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author, on why an increasing number of higher ed institutions are being targeted by the ruling BJP/NDA government at the Centre (Deccan Chronicle, February 26)

“The names Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon mean little to most students, but they are intended to be symbols of opposition to the establishment. Anti-national rhetoric is often the fuel that feeds demonstrations against the existing order of things.”

M.K. Narayanan, former national security advisor, in an essay ‘Is India at an inflection point?’ (The Hindu, February 29)