Aakar Patel is a writer and columnist. You can e-mail the author at aakar.patel@gmail.com
'For the Congress, it has become necessary to make alliances, but this is not easy to deliver at the local level,' says Aakar Patel.
Elizabeth Hurley, one of the great beauties of our time, said there was only one way to lose weight, and it was 'to go to bed hungry', says Aakar Patel.
'1998-1999 was the only year in the last quarter century that India had net-negative foreign investment.' 'Foreign money ran away from India that year because capital is a coward and does not like uncertainty of the sort produced by such casual treatment of a destructive technology,' says Aakar Patel.
'Till we are able to understand this reality of what is happening to our fellow citizens today in 2018, it would be hypocrisy to continue to teach in our textbooks about the great atrocity of 1919,' argues Aakar Patel.
'Some have speculated that it has to do with Doklam and the 2019 elections.' 'That Modi asked Xi not to embarrass him by sending the Chinese army into Bhutan again, this time rolling over our resistance,' says Aakar Patel.
'My boss was a woman. Not any woman, she was a demanding, rude and foul-mouthed creature whom I liked immediately,' says Aakar Patel.
'The death penalty exists in India for murderers. Is it a deterrent and does it stop murders?'
'The government says it will file a review petition against the Supreme Court, but there is no conviction here.' 'It is doing this purely because it is worried.' 'It comes from the same sentiment as asking BJP MPs to spend two nights in a Dalit village,' says Aakar Patel.
'There appears to be no relation between a government with a majority and GDP growth as the stock market and its analysts seem to fear.'
'To selectively look at the operation of certain laws -- in a manner that ignores the realities of caste and gender injustice in India -- and conclude that they are being particularly misused, is plain wrong,' says Aakar Patel.
'Creativity and invention come from engaging with the physical world.' 'This is something that we in the upper classes of India do not do as much as the rest of the world,' says Aakar Patel.
'It does not appear to me that the campaign of 2019 will be positive. By that I mean it is unlikely that there will be an 'achche din' style slogan either from the government or the opposition.'
'What does the nation get out of the CBI's fabulous infrastructure? Very little that is useful.'
Why are states important to win for national parties? What is the significance of local power? That was what we should have a look at because the Congress has been squeezed out of power in more states today than it has ever been in history.
One way to begin would be to access the material of our own culture, meaning the literature of India, recommends Aakar Patel.
'It can't be a coincidence that he and his family, uncles and all, vanished from India only days before the scam was discovered.'
'What does Bhagwat think his militia will do once it is at the border?' 'What does Bhagwat imagine his Sangh followers will do that will protect Mother India?' asks Aakar Patel.
'Modi's health scheme has changed the national conversation. For that reason it must be supported.'
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