'We should be open to looking at Ramdas Athavale's suggestion of reservations. India will not be unique if it chooses to do this, says Aakar Patel.
'I have no doubt that the government means well.' 'I am merely curious to know whether my suspicions of it being enthusiastic about shooting first and aiming later are unfounded,' says Aakar Patel.
What is required is boring leadership that ensures that the basics are right and not genius leadership that dreams of bullet trains, says Aakar Patel.
Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed at 5.30 am for the savage assault in an empty moving bus on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known the world over as Nirbhaya.
'Even if we expect that the economy will be hit and GDP is lowered for a few quarters by the reckless demonetisation, this will itself not be sufficient to dislodge Modi's popularity,' says Aakar Patel.
'Sonia's term as Congress president -- which was 20 years -- was the longest in the party's history.' 'It will also go down as the period in which the Congress transformed in the way Indians viewed it,' says Aakar Patel.
'It is only when those who are oppressed stand for themselves that society is forced to create space for them,' says Aakar Patel.
'Many fresh faces have come before him on both sides, and every sort of individual -- liberal, conservative, hardliner, dictator -- has come and gone.' 'I think we just seem to be happier when we hate one another,' says Aakar Patel.
'What happens in case the party joins a post-poll alliance with another party whose ideology the legislator is opposed to?' 'Should s/he let down her/his voters merely because her/his party leadership has taken a decision in that direction?' asks Aakar Patel.
'Except for the Akali Dal and Shiv Sena, the BJP has not found any permanent friends.' 'This is because most parties are genuinely concerned about what Hindutva politics does to Indian society,' argues Aakar Patel.
'Revelations about his assaults on young women mean that his reputation and all that he has stood for is in tatters for all time,' says Aakar Patel.
'We want to provide data, we want to provide consultation, but we don't want to lecture.' 'The consciousness about this issue in India is starting to get quite high and if we can help contribute to solving this air quality issue in a spirit of partnership with the Indians, it would be a big achievement.'
'It is only for a particular kind of Indian. The thing is: Even some of those types of Indians do not like it,' says Aakar Patel.
Why are states important to win for national parties? What is the significance of local power? That was what we should have a look at because the Congress has been squeezed out of power in more states today than it has ever been in history.
'For all of the tamasha about these meetings of Modi and the videshi desis, the reality is that they are just entertainment. The question to ask is what does this energy result in? The answer is: not much,' says Aakar Patel.
'The Indian soldier will fight where he is asked to, and he always has.' 'It is up to us as a democratic society to see that his service and sacrifice is for the most useful causes, and that we do not needlessly ask him to die for us,' says Aakar Patel.
He was deliberately reducing Ansari to his Muslim identity by linking his career as a diplomat in the Arab world and educationist and his reflections on intolerance with his religion.
'One glance at the Indians on the field compared to these visiting South Africans, and you know something is very wrong or very different. One side (not our side) looks like athletes do,' says Aakar Patel.
'Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan now act in only about one film each year, and made money through advertisements and television.' 'This meant that many people, even if they had the money to spend on a movie and wanted to go, often had nothing available for them to watch.'
'If it is true that we are in a moment in time when the few economic advantages we hold are being lost, our focus must be on that rather than on finger-pointing,' says Aakar Patel.
'1998-1999 was the only year in the last quarter century that India had net-negative foreign investment.' 'Foreign money ran away from India that year because capital is a coward and does not like uncertainty of the sort produced by such casual treatment of a destructive technology,' says Aakar Patel.
'Arguments about politics and religion do not end in name calling and abuse when they happen face to face.' 'In person we are more balanced because we are aware we are being observed.'
'There is an observable difference between Nepalis and Lankans and the rest of us.' 'It would serve us well to understand where this difference comes from and, if it is something that is better in some way, how it is that we can access it,' says Aakar Patel.
'On corruption the Yadavs of UP and Bihar will find it very tough to give an answer to the accusations of the BJP and its supporters,' says Aakar Patel.
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com attends Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's presser in Chennai to tom-tom the government's achievements in its first 100 days in office.
'It will be fascinating to see how Modi, for the first time in his political life without a majority, is able to manage the ambitions and the conflicts,' says Aakar Patel.
'Modi has also made mistakes and overpromised.' 'However, his cautious and careful approach have insulated him from criticism.'
In the next 25 years or so, we will have intelligence in computers that will exceed man's in every way.
'Gujaratis need not be ashamed of the lack of martial tradition.' 'They contribute to their country in other ways.' 'And, of course, they can also claim that while they may not have produced many martyrs, they produced the greatest one: Gandhi.'
'If the 'ideology' is just Hindutva, meaning cattle slaughter, temple issue, love jihad, joined with random acts on the side of economics and foreign policy, then we are in deeper trouble than we think,' says Aakar Patel.
'The death penalty exists in India for murderers. Is it a deterrent and does it stop murders?'
'The bullet train is not modernity itself. It is the product of modernity.' 'It is this modernity that we would be fortunate to be able to import from Japan.' 'It occurs to me that we seem to believe that by acquiring the toys we will become a modern nation,' says Aakar Patel.
'Those of us who care for the Indian Constitution worry,' 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 corporate world and the private sector economy take notice of the monstrous and apartheid like division that exists in our offices. The jobs we so casually take for granted in the upper class have come to us on the back of denial to others,' says Aakar Patel.
Former internationals Rohan Gavaskar, Deep Dasgupta and Hemang Badani are among 101 cricketers who have severed links with the rebel Indian Cricket League and applied to the Board of Control for Cricket in India to return to the fold under the amnesty scheme that ended May 31. Seventy-nine current and 11 former Test cricketers -- including ex-captain Ajit Wadekar and off-spin legend Erapalli Prasanna -- have taken advantage of the amnesty scheme.
'If lynchings are happening frequently in India, it is the responsibility of those who lead the country to try and end them, not promote them,' says Aakar Patel.
'I do not think that we are showing Hindu humanity and humaneness in the process of the National Register of Citizens.'
Very few people have access to the granular detail of what options are available to India and what their costs, consequences and benefits are. While Modi considers all of this, he would do well to do one thing. And that is to ignore the media.
'Our priority cannot be better cities. Since real change is not possible, we must satisfy ourselves with a change in name,' says Aakar Patel.
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