'Why can I not access all these things -- Bhut Jolokia, Dalle, Kaachu, Bhakri, Ghari and everything else -- more easily?' asks Aakar Patel.

'If Rahul Gandhi's authority was absolute, he could have picked his man.' 'Compare this with the ease with which outsiders like Adityanath, Khattar and Fadnavis were picked.'

'The confidence of the Opposition will go up and alliances will be easier to form if it becomes apparent that the BJP is losing ground in the north of India,' says Aakar Patel.

'What is the problem in getting the UK to extradite our citizens?' asks Aakar Patel.

'It is not with feelings of devotion or piety that these people are gathering.' 'It is mostly with emotions of hatred.' 'Listen to their slogans and their rhetoric and this becomes immediately clear,' says Aakar Patel.

'A nation can take a quick decision in a fit of passion or excitement that can be damaging to itself in the long term,' says Aakar Patel.

'There will be an instant and positive change in the way Rahul Gandhi is perceived by millions if he says he is not a candidate for PM,' suggests Aakar Patel.

Unless Indians learn to speak freely and fearlessly, 'true greatness will elude this nation, no matter how brilliant the individual at the helm may be,' 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.'

'Almost exclusively, their interest was in the work that we were doing that they thought of as being "anti-national". One of them even used that specific word,' says Aakar Patel.

'There is no shortage of material for the Opposition to develop and deploy a campaign against the government.' 'Are we seeing signs that it exists? I confess that I do not see it,' says 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 have unleashed a nastiness and viciousness in ourselves that had been bottled up before.' 'This government has helped uncork it, possible forever, and to my mind that is its most significant achievement.'

'The problem of a Hindu rashtra is that it has no text which can be adapted to the modern world.' 'The most prominent element of the Hindu way of organising society and the State is through caste.' 'This is not acceptable to most Hindus.' 'Because a Hindu rashtra also erodes the power and the rights of the majority of Hindus, we can be assured that this is not something that the BJP, or any other force can do,' argues Aakar Patel.

'Two powerful men shaking hands with two powerful women as equals. This photograph made me very happy,' 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.

'It would have been much more appropriate if a law such as this, which all of the civilised world has given up, was struck down through democratic politics rather than five individuals sitting in judgement,' 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.

The England-India series has brought the bowler back into what has been turned into a batsman's game, says Aakar Patel.

'To deny our people help in the time of their greatest need is cruelty,' says Aakar Patel, winner of the 2018 Prem Bhatia Award for Political Reporting.