'There is a discomfort among many of us at the fact that the Republic is not more Hindu than it could or should be.' 'This discomfort is producing laws such as the one we now have in Gujarat,' says Aakar Patel.

'The Congress in 2017 stands for nothing positive, not even secularism.'

The numbers, however, look very good for Modi. We could say it is his election to lose, rather than the Opposition's to win, says Aakar Patel.

'Responding with outrage is not enough. It is the time, and the responsibility of all who hold those rights dear, to fight back, says Aakar Patel.

'We are in the presence of a truly great politician,' says Aakar Patel.

'The only forum for resistance and dissent has become the university.' 'Free thinking is the right our brave students have been demanding.' 'As another round of violence and hatred against 'anti-nationals' begins, all of us, whether or not we agree with their views, should support and defend them,' says Aakar Patel.

'When it vanishes as a national force (meaning when it can no longer get sufficient votes to hold onto its symbol, the hand) it will not have been the first large Indian party to die,' says Aakar Patel.

'The more harder India pushes its nationalism on to its population, the further away we send Kashmiris.' 'We should understand that the unrest in that state cannot be solved by demonetisation. There are much deeper causes,' says Aakar Patel.

'We expect mobs on the subcontinent to hand out punishment without trial.' 'To have ministers doing it and then being proud about it says something about how the law is treated in India and how seriously ministers take their oath of office,' says Aakar Patel.

'It will be a fine day when we can claim to have institutions in civil society as influential and as popular as ACLU, which is a strong body only because millions of Americans support its values.' 'When Indians take offence at how other Indians are treated, when we take injustice to others personally, we will begin to make India great,' says Aakar Patel.

'The BJP has the opportunity to undo a lot of the damage that we have suffered as a society which looks away from mass violence.'

'The real problem of joblessness and democratic politics is happening here in India. And it is happening now, right before us.'

The end of newspaper reporting will produce a landscape so barren that it will be terrifying, says Aakar Patel.

'If Amazon's officials had secured their visas through proper paperwork, under what rule or law was Swaraj threatening to cancel them?' 'If she felt a crime had been committed, as a law abiding citizen she should have registered a first information report or a complaint.' 'Instead she fired off a twitter fatwa, acting like a despot.'

The UK spends about Rs 1.5 lakh per citizen. India spends Rs 260 per citizen. Of course we are a poor nation, but we are a poor nation that last year spent Rs 59,000 crore buying 36 fighter planes and this year is spending Rs 99,000 crore on a bullet train, says Aakar Patel.

'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.

'If one is looking for evidence of his talents as a mass leader, it has been on display since he announced demonetisation on November 8.' 'Let us look at it and appreciate it, because we are in the presence of a true master,' says Aakar Patel.

'We are in the middle of the biggest self created crisis of this government.' 'A crisis which involves and includes citizens and affects the way we go about our lives.' 'It is a crisis that is being managed poorly by the government and, it is absolutely clear, even more shoddily by the Opposition,' says Aakar Patel.

'Singh has written that he fears demonetisation will end up a mammoth tragedy.' 'Modi has told us we will enter a better world in January.' 'Both men can't be right and we will know which one of them is wrong soon,' 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.