Shobha Warrier has been associated with Rediff from its inception and currently works as Senior Editorial Director. She is also the author of five books in English, Battlefield India: 25 years of Politricks and Economix, Dreamchasers: Entrepreneurs from the South of the Vindhyas, Dreamchaers: Women Entrepreneurs from the South of the Vindhyas, His Days with Bapu, and The Little Flower girl and Others- A diary of a journalist. Her three Malayalam short story collections include Jalavidya, Meghana and Ramakundam. She won the Lalitambika Antharjanam special award in 1996 for her book, Jalavidya. She likes talking to people and listening to their stories! You can e-mail the author at shobhaw@rediff.co.in
'Whenever Yogiji said something which was against the party line, we distanced ourselves from that.' 'He will not speak his personal opinion now.'
'The sadhus and sanyasis of UP are not for any economics.' 'They only know the religious agenda and the RSS will support them.' 'Modi does not have full control of the party at the ground level like Indira Gandhi had.'
'The only narrative before India is what Modi and the BJP is presenting.' 'Nationalism has been taken as a serious plank by the BJP and RSS.' 'They want to keep the nationalism thing alive to make people forget the economic reality.'
'This is a watershed election in Indian politics.' 'For the first time, we are moving away from identity politics to aspirational politics.'
'When the campaign started the Congress said it had been miserable for the last 27 years for UP and that people should get rid of those who made it miserable, and that they should bring back the glorious years of the Congress.' 'Then they joined hands with those who ruled for the last 26 years. Some called it a shrewd strategy, but to the people this was not shrewdness.' 'Where is the credibility in your actions when you change direction of the campaign?'
'The UP election results show that people voted not on caste and religion lines; they went above that and voted for development, honesty, pride in the country, etc.' 'If UP can show the way, the rest of the country also can follow.'
'Our religion had some important philosophies regarding trans people that cannot be ignored.' 'Contemporary India is refusing and ignoring transgender people.'
'How can anyone ask me to stop what I have been doing since I was 6?'
'As a society, we are very intolerant to failures which is contrary to entrepreneurship because all entrepreneurs will not succeed.'
'There are many people like me who were kept away from Jayalalithaa.' 'There is a coterie who did not allow her to meet people.'
Ratul Narain -- the entrepreneur behind Bempu -- tells Shobha Warrier that despite the challenges and frustrations, he is living his dream.
'He can say justice has not been done in accordance with the free will of the MLAs without a secret ballot and also by the issuing of a whip.' 'He can ask for a fresh show of strength.'
'The people of Tamil Nadu are fed up of these people, whether it is Panneerselvam or Palaniswami.'
'He can install OPS as chief minister and ask him to do the floor test later.'
'The entire bandwagon of MLAs will move to our side.'
'The Centre is using Panneerselvam.' 'He is not known for standing up for his own rights, let alone for the state.' 'He spoke only after he saw huge protests against Sasikala; otherwise, he would have just complied and continued to walk down the aisle.'
'He was doing so well as the CM, which some vested interests didn't like.' 'They didn't like his stature growing day by day.'
'If the interim chief minister lodges a criminal complaint against Sasikala for grabbing power through coercion, she has to face one more case.'
'One thing is clear from what happened last night; both sides are being manipulated by the same party with a lot of wrong inputs.' 'I see a hand in Delhi doing the puppet act on both sides.'
Raghav tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier how he and his cousin Mukund co-founded Renew IT, which refurbishes discarded computers and makes them affordable for the poor in rural India.
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