'You can accuse him of many things but one thing you cannot accuse him of is being bad at politics,' says Aakar Patel.

'There must be thousands if not lakhs of people the government is illegally spying on.' 'Why should we enable this criminal activity by volunteering our details?'

'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.

'We are not producing good students who are examining issues independently of what they are being fed either by the media or their educators,' says Aakar Patel.

''The Congress has forgotten how to mobilise people on political issues,' says Aakar Patel.

'Opposition to the idea of a state flag has come from the small thinking pseudo-nationalists, who are the ones pushing Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan.' 'Identifying India wrongly as a one language, one religion nation,' 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.

'At home, being vegan is no real problem, and other than dairy (dahi, chhaas, ghee and kadhi) I can eat normally.' 'There is, of course, the eschewing of meat and as someone who likes (should I say liked?) Naga pork and beef steaks, and has eaten snake and dog, going vegan is unusual,' says Aakar Patel.

'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.

'One minute and 45 seconds of that clip are on Modi praising gauraksha.' 'In the last 30 seconds he speaks about violence, but says only that killing is unacceptable.' 'We don't need the prime minister to tell us that.' 'We need him to tell us why the killing is happening and what he will do to stop it,' says Aakar Patel.

'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.

'The armies that are lined up and firing at each other without ceasing, without much change on the ground and without much benefit, are replaced by civilians (also in uniforms, of team colours) screaming abuse,' says Aakar Patel.

'Those who are upset by the current government's hard position against agitating Kashmiris should know it is exactly as hard as the position of previous governments.' 'Congress also killed as many, and actually more, but it spoke softly.' 'The BJP uses harsher words, but that is the only real difference,' says Aakar Patel.

'We should credit Prime Minister Modi with having foresight and courage and showing leadership on climate change.'

'China held a meeting on the One Belt One Road and India boycotted it.' 'However, all of India's neighbours attended, except for one, Bhutan.' 'India warned those attending that the partnership with the Chinese would come at a heavy price, but almost nobody heard us.' 'The question is: Why not?' asks Aakar Patel.

'Modi has also made mistakes and overpromised.' 'However, his cautious and careful approach have insulated him from criticism.'

'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.'

'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.

In the next 25 years or so, we will have intelligence in computers that will exceed man's in every way.