'The BJP had ruled earlier too, but nothing of this sort happened then... I don't say the government is behind the attacks, but they don't do anything to stop the attacks.' 'The prime minister has to tell the perpetrators that it is not in the interest of the government that such incidents happen.' 'When somebody says all Indians are Hindus, responsible people should ask him to stop and assure the country that this is not the opinion of the government. But it is not happening and it is quite unfortunate,' Cardinal Baselios Cleemis tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.
'Everybody was ready to agree with the government if the process to acquire land was a judicious one. All of us want industrialisation and development of the country.'
'Sharing of water from a river which flows through several states is a crucial challenge which comes in the way of maintaining the spirit of good neighbourly relations.'
'We had a great product for the global market and we could sell it globally resulting in this amazing growth.' 'When customers come online and buy a product, they don't look at whether it is created in India or somewhere else.'
'Congress is on the defensive about scams and corruption charges... The media is against the UPA.... The Nehru family is not just another family; it is a national wealth,'Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
'If the Indian economy formalises, industrialises, urbanises and develops human capital, 10 lakh youngsters will join the labour force every month in the next 10 years.' 'It's not a bulb that will go off; it is a sunrise.'
'Adaptability is what is needed right now and students have to continuously learn the new tools to remain relevant in the career they choose.'
'Voters did not turn up in large numbers in Bangalore.' 'If more voters of Bangalore had come to vote, we would definitely have reached the magic figure.'
'The middle class stood by the BJP, especially after demonetisation, and they expected something in return.' 'Some section of the BJP believes the middle class is condemned to vote for the BJP as they have no other choice.' 'They think they can treat them any way, still the middle class will run to vote for it.' 'That's what the Budget seems to convey.'
Saundarya Rajesh has helped more than 8,000 women get back to work.
The UK has responded to PM Modi's call to 'Make in India' by launching great collaborations in January 2015.
'The BJP has latched on to the idea of nationalism, but the nationalism they advocate is not nationalism as we have understood it since the time of the freedom movement.' 'This is not secular nationalism, it is Hindu nationalism.' 'It is a form of nationalism that is exclusionary and it tends to conflate national interest with the government.' 'So, if you disagree with the government, for example, on surgical strikes or demonetisation, you are anti-national or holder of black money.'
'If you solve it in one day, it will go after a day.' 'If it is there for 100 years or 1,000 years, reservation has to continue.'
'The moment the BJP loses a state, it announces some policy which never takes off.'
'There are 25 million farmers in India with at least 2 to 3 cows each.' 'If all them use biogas to cook, millions of LPG units and firewood can be saved.'
'Politically, Tamil Nadu has faced several setbacks in the past -- the water sharing issue with Karnataka, on Katchatheevu, on the Tamil fishermen issue...' 'In all these issues, the central and state governments acted in an inefficient and incompetent manner.' 'That must have stayed in the minds of the people.'
'Today, bankers don't want to take risks as the good decisions taken by them were not protected.' 'There is risk involved in all decisions, like businessmen taking risks in their businesses.' 'A banker must have taken a decision when the economic condition was different, and you cannot question him on the basis of the present situation in hindsight.' 'Naturally, this has affected the morale of bankers.'
'30 to 40% of the industry needs to be reskilled as existing jobs will go to automation.' 'Reskilling is required as some existing jobs will not be required in the future.'
'What we are trying for is to make space travel easier like air travel.' 'We have already established ourselves... the fact that other countries are coming to seek our help shows our technology is mature.'
B K Tyagi, director of the Madurai-based Centre for Research in Medical Entomology, talks with Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about how dengue fever can be controlled.
'Healthcare is so expensive that while it saves lives, it destroys more lives socially and financially.' 'While the poor gets wiped out, a middle-class man goes to a corporate hospital and after the treatment, he ends up below the poverty line.' 'Generally, hospitals would like to have patients who need procedures and operations.' 'They are not so fond of palliative care.' 'How much can be made from one hour of counselling? And how much can be made from one hour of an operation?'
'What we see here is puppetry. The string is with the BJP.' 'All the puppets here are dancing to the direction the BJP pulls the strings.'
Two mysterious objects seem to have fallen from the sky -- one in a paddy field and one in an engineering college, killing one person.
'Agriculture has been given the wrong kind of attention.' 'More innovations are needed for the sector to be successful,' says Devi Murthy of Kamal Kisan.
'Do you know there is a 500 page report prepared by an inquiry committee headed by myself? When I placed the report in Parliament, have you heard any single Opposition leader give a notice for discussion? Why are they not demanding a discussion in Parliament on the report? They could have established that there was a scam. Today, a Parliament Committee report is as good as a Parliament report and this report says the 2G scam is no scam. Our government is suffering because of the media hype on these scams,' Congress MP P C Chacko tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
I am not a quitter. I was with the United Nations for 29 years. I don't know whether I will have 29 years in politics, but I don't intend to end with just 5 years, Dr Shashi Tharoor tells rediff.com's Shobha Warrier
Economist S Janakarajan, in an interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com warns that without proper infrastructure, India will never be able to build a market economy.
'The government is using the Intelligence Bureau to go after NGOs.' 'It is not only the NDA, the UPA also didn't like NGOs.' 'NGOs predominantly work with the poor. So, when you cancel an NGO, the affected are the poor, the Dalits, the tribals, the street children and the marginalised.'
'Students tell me their parents are fine with them either joining a start up or even starting one. This was not the case 10 years ago.'
'Even if such a thing happens, it will not prolong for many days like Doklam did.' 'That is because both the leaders do not want it.'
'A change of government will bring about a lot of changes because everything is frozen for the last two years. So, the frozen energies of India will be released.' Swadeshi Jagran Manch convenor Swaminathan Gurumurthy discusses the Modi phenomenon with Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
'I do not believe that they have become terrorists and have gone to Syria to fight.' 'I feel they have only become very orthodox Muslims.'
'When the world was refining itself, India was going backwards culturally with so many rape cases and other atrocities against women, children and the elderly. The growth of evil forces was very bad in the last 10 years,' says Malayalam movie star Suresh Gopi, who met Narendra Modi recently tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier in this exclusive interview.
'They have no other agenda, but to perpetuate hate.' 'They have destroyed the economy and polity and they survive only on hate.' 'They think through hatred, they can mobilise the large chunk of Hindu votes.'
'I told him when I started my political career seven decades ago he was not even born. His political activities, the protests he organises and the way he fights the biggest corporate of India, the Ambanis, give hope to all people who are progressive. My desire is that such a party must grow, and I wished him all success for its growth.' V S Achuthanandan, the senior-most Communist in India, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier why he turned down Arvind Kejriwal's invitation to join the Aam Aadmi Party.
'It is our aim to capture power and rule in Kerala. We may not be able to achieve our target in one attempt.' 'By just hammering once, you will not be able to break a rock; you need to hammer the rock several times.'
Two Americans, Diana Jue and Jackie Stenson, are living their dreams in India's rural heartlands...
The BJP government is no better than the Congress -- as wretched and anti-people. In addition, it is explicitly and aggressively communal, says Venkatesh B Athreya, in a hard-hitting interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.
'India's economy is growing faster compared to the developed economies of the world.' 'More importantly, it is growing faster compared to most of the developing economies.' 'The monsoon is not the only thing that drives the rural economy and certainly not the national economy.' 'It is too simplistic to reduce everything to the monsoon.'
'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.'
