“When people come out on the streets to protest against a law, they are not merely disagreeing but are questioning the legitimacy of the government. This is why the government sees dissent as a foundational attack on the very basis of the state. ” – Dr. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, professor of political science at Ashoka University, Sonipat (The Indian Express, December 5)
“About 18,000 of the 60,000 compliances in India prescribe jail as a penalty for non-compliance. Criminalisation should be cut from at least 75 percent of compliances.” – Manish Sabharwal, chairman, Teamlease Services on India’s ease of doing business (India Today, December 14)
“The purpose of the recent APMC laws enacted by the Central government is to free up the farmer from the stranglehold of the APMC and allow him to sell his produce directly to the highest bidder…” – Arvind Panagriya, former vice-chairman Niti Aayog on the recently passed agriculture liberalisation laws (AgNews, December 17)
“Three big trends have emerged that affect the future of India. First, to establish a sheer myth of common Hindu identity to the Indian nationhood, secondly, to entrench its conception of majoritarian nationalism signalling soft bigotry against minorities and thirdly, to secure the Hindutva nationalism through the effective centralisation of authoritarian top-down unitary rule by weakening of institutions and federalism and its practices.” – Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP, delivering a lecture on ‘Future of Indian Democracy’ (December 20)
“A lot of people tell me the AMU campus is like a city in itself — thousands of teachers, lakhs of students… it’s like a mini-India. While on one hand you have Urdu education, you also have Hindi; while you have Arabic you also have Sanskrit. This diversity is not just AMU’s strength but also that of India.” – Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivering the keynote address at the centenary celebrations of Aligarh Muslim University (December 22)