“Viewed through the prism of brutality, thus, history has few heroes. If the Mughals were violent, it was not because they were Mughals; it was because they were royal.” Manu S. Pillai, historian and author, on many justifying the NCERT’s deletion of chapters on Mughals in school textbooks by pointing to their brutality (Times of India, April 14) “India’s primary advantage in embracing the China-plus-one challenge is the country’s demographic profile. We must devote more attention to our children, youth and women to realise our demographic dividend fully.” Viral Acharya, professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business, on why India needs an action plan to cash its demographic advantage (Mint, April 20) “Time for all of us to hang our heads in shame: India slips in World Press Freedom Index, ranks 161 out of 180 countries.” Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP (Twitter, May 3) “IIT should not be merely an educational institute but become laboratory of public welfare ‘Lok-Kalyan’. IIT must be hub of entrepreneurship. The students must aspire to be job creators not just job seekers. IITians must become the face of new India with no discrimination.” Dharmendra Pradhan, Union education minister, addressing the convocation ceremony of IIT-Bombay (May 3) “Seeing the tears in the eyes of sportspersons who won laurels for the country by their dedication and hard work is very painful. Their grievances should be heard, and justice be given.” Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, secretary of the All-India Congress Committee on the protest by Olympic wrestlers against alleged sexual harassment (May 5, Telegraph) “Wake up and smell the coffee. (Article 370) is history. The sooner people realise it, the better it is.” S. Jaishankar, Union external affairs minister at the meet of SCO foreign ministers (May 5)
