'Because of the callous attitude of the railway administration, they don't take care of safety.'
'The presence of Rahul Gandhi and his campaigning for the Congress will make a general difference, but whether it will make a saving difference, not sure.'
'If Manipur is divided on ethnic lines, similar demands will come in other states also.'
'The Constitution of India is a stumbling block. So, they want a Presidential mode of election.' 'This is the sole purpose of the BJP to go for one nation, one election.'
'I am requesting Sonia Gandhi to listen to her inner voice again.' 'Then, she will know this is the time for the family to step aside.'
'How does it matter to me if a foreigner comes, starts an industry and makes India a $5 trillion economy when I am dead?'
'Since the Covid virus has a tendency to mutate, we can continue to expect new variants of the virus to emerge and keep circulating and recirculating in the communities.'
'What the UP administration wanted was political mileage, and they also had the silent approval from the central government.'
'When the average growth in the last three years was just 2.5%, how does that make us the fastest growing country?' 'They only tell you what has happened in the last 2 years; they are not taking into account what happened in FY21 on account of their mistakes.'
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
'Nobody is attacking the company or the vaccine.' 'The concerns are about the process and the lack of transparency.'
'We may be weak now, but the importance of the Congress cannot be denied.'
'We must encourage ambitious leaders and not stifle them.'
'When they completely surrender to the BJP or the BJP has completely taken over the party, what's the point in the AIADMK surviving and doing business in the state?'
'Yesterday, I was at a seed meeting where we gave outright grants up to Rs 20 lakhs or loans up to Rs 50 lakhs for new start-ups under 2 years.'
'What is happening now is the virus is trying to survive inside us, and we are also trying to survive.' 'It is actually a fight. And the advantage the virus has is it multiplies very, very fast.' 'Within a second it can make 100 copies. Our cells are not like that.'
'Kerala society is more advanced than any other society in India and everybody is more aware of the laws and how to proceed against the accused. So, you cannot blame Kerala based on the crime records,' says state home minister Ramesh Chennithala.
'We will bring up students with an imperfect understanding of their own history and a superficial understanding of science.' 'This is not what we should be doing to future generations.'
'He will go to any extent, and he will have the full support of the Union government as they may not like a Left government to continue here.'
'The reason why we have reached such depths is because of the breakdown of the rule of law, and not the political atmosphere.' 'Yes, the political atmosphere has aggravated the situation.'
'The State uses identity politics as part of divide and rule; the militant groups too use identity politics and civil society groups are also divided along ethnic groups.'
'Unless some serious steps like complete closedown are taken, it will have disastrous consequences.'
'Rain-fed farms in the drier parts of the country are feeling the pinch of lack of water, and this pinch is only going to increase. Some of the biggest companies have shut down because of non-availability of water.'
'The entire bandwagon of MLAs will move to our side.'
'A Muslim is lynched somewhere, and you forward the video of the lynching through WhatsApp.' 'So, you participate in that lynching without actually doing it. You endorse it without being a party to it.'
'This will have a multiplier effect in generating more jobs.'
Shobha Warrier reports from Thiruvananthapuram where a former UN diplomat is battling a former governor for the Lok Sabha seat.
'When the government wants to sell these assets, even if one set of assets gets caught in any quagmire, the whole process will fail.' 'The entire world is watching us.'
'The food security along the coastal region will be severely affected.'
'Since the party is at a stage when things are very bad, this is the best time to experiment.'
'You can walk wearing the hijab on the street, but not in a school.'
'Any entrepreneur who wants to create companies on blockchain will have to move outside India.' 'A ban will also wipe out the entire asset investing class that has built up in India.'
'If you want Aatma Nirbhar, your policies should favour self-reliance, but your policies do not help the idea.' 'How are we going to be self-reliant if you make things difficult for us?'
'While the Congressmen were fighting, the LDF was quietly doing its job, perhaps bringing in results in the lives of the people.' 'Pinarayi Vijayan and several ministers in his cabinet believed that the government should do real business, which is not to fight with the UDF but govern.'
'There will be positive growth, but if you ask me whether we are going to have the original growth rate of 8%, the answer will be, no.'
'How long can you keep a person in jail using false cases?'
'A change we have seen after the Russia-Ukraine war is the energy crisis in Europe.' 'Earlier, in Europe, people used to change their clothes after 5 washes, now they are using it till 15-20 washes.' 'They used to change their entire wardrobe after 2 months or so, but because of the economic conditions, it has changed.' 'It has affected exports as 40% of our exports is to Europe, 30% to the US and 10% to the UK.' 'The war has to end for better days to come.'
'Mr (Gautam) Adani invested in Vizhinjam port when no other viable party was willing to bid.' 'He has also been active in charitable work and CSR projects in our coastal areas.' 'As the local MP, I do not judge the local situation purely through the prism of politics.'
'Visibly there is a posturing that everything is fine. That creates a bit of a problem.'
'How can you explain the necessity of selling an institution that has been delivering regular returns to the government, that has never asked for any capital from the government, that has invested Rs 38 lakh crores in the Indian economy and that owns 4 per cent of the market capitalisation in India?'
