They said it

"We Indians behave with courtesy at home but when we go out, we leave these good manners at home. Building modern roads and driving modern cars is not the end all and be all of progress. Good road manners and adherence to road discipline are equally important." --
Prime minister Manmohan Singh in Bangalore (June 23)

"Ideally we would like to have gentleman officers and not lady officers at the unit level. We can do without them." -- S. Pattabhiraman, vice-chief of Army Staff, commenting on the role of women in the Army

"There has to be, the world expects there to be, demo-cratic, free and fair elections in Pakistan in 2007." -- US secretary of state Condoleeza Rice in Islamabad

"Even if the CM is up for sale, I will not buy him. If I were to pay bribes to get things done, I could have completed the work long back. Why am I struggling for 11 years?" -- NICE chief Ashok Kheny on allegations of corruption in the building of the Mysore-Bangalore expressway

"Anyone can get old; all you have to do is to live long enough." -- Queen Elizabeth quoting Groucho Marx during her official 80th birthday celebrations

"The investments in China’s modernization that are most impressive of all are in human capital. The blunt fact is that many young Chinese in cities like Shanghai or Beijing receive a better elementary and high school education than Americans do. That’s a reality that should embarrass us and stir us to seek lessons from China." -- Nicholas D. Kristof in The New York Times (June 28)

"This (education) is one sector where India has not removed the licence-permit raj or undertaken market oriented reforms. The government does not allow the burgeoning demand to be met by higher supply by the private sector." -- Editorial in The Indian Express (June 27)

"Ministers on assumption of office should take an oath of transparency and administering the oath of secrecy should be dispensed with." -- Veerappa Moily, head of Administrative Reforms Commission