'Azim Premji has given away about one-and-a-half lakh crore rupees of his wealth.' 'Most of us will not even know what that sum actually means.' 'To put it into context, it can fund India's health budget and education budget,' points out Aakar Patel.
'The Modi government did not deny it had acquired the NSO platform, and did not deny it was spying on its citizens by hacking into their phones,' says Aakar Patel.
'The government has given up its focus on economic growth because it it not something Modi has been able to fully understand.' 'This explains the extraordinary focus on divisive politics by the BJP even at a time when the world's most important man in visiting India,' notes Aakar Patel.
'The facts have become unimportant and useless.' 'What is important is the constantly shouting of patriotism even as one undermines the interests of the people.' 'And the abusing of rivals as being traitors,' says Aakar Patel.
'Even for those of us who are not driven or hardworking, life will be much more interesting and vastly different from the way life is today,' says Aakar Patel.
'The best thing that Modi can hope for in this visit is that he is able to mobilise Indians in America to vote Republican and try and help Trump return to power,' argues Aakar Patel.
'The NRC is aimed at rounding up and permanently jailing Indian Muslims who cannot produce the documents to satisfy a government which punishes those individuals who do not declare maximum number of Muslims foreigners.' 'It is for this reason that we see so many Indian Muslims protesting these laws and it is for this reason that so many non-Muslims cannot stand by and watch what is happening in their country,' says Aakar Patel.
'If Indians are as smart as their counterparts in university, and have equal opportunity, then what is the reason that we cannot produce inventions of quality that are recognised by the world?'
'The goal is achievable. What is stopping us from getting there?' asks Aakar Patel.
'In Pakistan there has been no problem about the installation of the statues of these men, unlike the Jinnah portrait or other controversies that seem to be present in India these days quite regularly,' says Aakar Patel.
'If there is a vulnerable family anywhere in the world, it is the Gandhis,' notes Aakar Patel.
'We have not been able to use the potential of our location in the region and the world and our strength as a nation and an economy to establish an EU-like structure in South Asia,' points out Aakar Patel.
ially powerful ones, usually find themselves surrounded by people who will not oppose them. 'This is because those who are cautious and of a different view will not find satisfaction serving an individual so different from them, producing results they do not agree with,' says Aakar Patel.
'More members of the Indian Armed Forces have died in Kashmir, North East and Naxal areas than in the 1962 and 1971 wars against Pakistan combined. These deaths are the result of political failure and not war.'
'The intensity with which we are focussed on Pakistan, particularly our government and our media, ultimately harms us and reduces our greatness,' argues Aakar Patel.
'We are telling them we have isolated them and their religion as not only unwanted,' says Aakar Patel.
'There will be millions of us who will feel fear and insecurity because of the menace of majoritarian ideology.' 'It is for the wellbeing and security of those of my fellow Indians, who are affected and who I care for, that I have voted,' says Aakar Patel.
'There is no acceptable definition of what terrorism is and who a terrorist is.'
'The unveiling of the Cybertruck seems to me the turning point in the design and manufacture of automobiles in much the same way as American skyscrapers were the turning point of architectural design in the world,' says Aakar Patel.
'In a part of the world where the government tells people what not to eat and what slogans to shout and not shout, it is beneficial to develop a mentality that is science minded and therefore open-minded.' 'That is possibly why the space programme has always had support from all sides of the political divide,' says Aakar Patel.
'There is no meritocracy or at least there is none that is visible and transparent.' 'The Congress has two opportunities to change this,' says Aakar Patel.
'The party will keep to the script that its core supporter understands: temples, statues, Muslims and cows.'
India should do what we can to ensure that our two friends do not get into a confrontation that is meaningless and ultimately damaging to everyone including us.
'Modi personally provides the higher direction of the ministry and the minister then works with bureaucrats on implementation,' points out Aakar Patel.
'Random displays of anger will end in punishment from the IOC and the loss of points in the World Cup, without achieving what we seek,' says Aakar Patel.
'How will someone who has stood on Mars and looked at Earth, only a tiny blue dot in space, then see the idea of nations and religions and all of our divisions?' says Aakar Patel.
'It is only because of the Congress that we became a secular republic.' 'As we enter a period where another political force has became dominant, it will be interesting to see if this legacy of Nehru and the Congress is sustained or we are taken in a new direction,' says Aakar Patel.
2019 will be 'a match between the old caste politics and something new which we have not fully understood in UP,' says Aakar Patel.
'Once the prime minister and the chief ministers of Maharashtra and Haryana pushed for this in 2014 and 2015, we have been trapped in a cycle of violence that gives India a bad name around the world,' says Aakar Patel.
'We can make all the noise we want to about being a tolerant society, but the reality is in front of us.'
'One goal of the Congress would surely have been to rebuild its organisation so that it begins to match that of the BJP.' 'However, this has not happened, though Rahul Gandhi has been in the party for 15 years now,' says Aakar Patel.
'The government should refrain from 'adventurism' and 'megalomania'.' 'But this should be true of reckless government action against every Indian, whether or not they are wealthy or have access to the finance minister even when he is in hospital,' says Aakar Patel.
'The narrative that is the ruling party is using on Pulwama is not productive.' 'I do not think Modi and the BJP will get more votes because of that incident and the response to it,' says Aakar Patel.
So long as no females were allowed to pray there, the strength of emotion kept the issue burning. As more and more women do this, the matter will fade.
'We have had 27 years of liberalisation and in the same period Korea and Japan and China transformed themselves forever,' says Aakar Patel.
'We would do well to encourage all Indians to participate in democracy by contesting and laws that prevent or deter individuals and parties should be relooked at,' says Aakar Patel.
'The sentiment against immigrants and particularly against Muslims is produced by the climate of hatred and bigotry we see all around us.' 'It is produced by the politics of division and spread by a reckless media around the world including unfortunately in India,' says Aakar Patel.
'India is a strange place.' 'On the one hand we have the most advanced science working on our origins and our ancestry.' 'On the other we are at war with ourselves over a temple to a god whom our first ancestors knew nothing of,' says Aakar Patel.
Nobody understands the deep causes of defeat and victory better than the defeated. The defeated have been to all the battlefields. They have looked into the eyes of their soldiers and those of the opponents, says Aakar Patel.
'The individuals whom this government and its media call 'Urban Naxals' should not have been arrested.' 'In any civilised democracy (which India is not) this would not have happened,' argues Aakar Patel.
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