Syed Firdaus Ashraf covers national politics, and sometimes movies too -- a truly wide arc! You can e-mail the author at firdausa@rediff.co.in
'It is a frightening situation as the most threatening aspect is the development and growth of society.' 'Once our society comes into perpetual violent mode, then investments will drop.'
'Political narrative in our country today is tilted towards Hindutva orientation and so Kejriwal becomes very dangerous to the BJP.' 'For them, he is a leader to watch.'
'Just keep telling people that we have fixed the Muslims, and they will not be bothered about their empty stomachs or empty wallets.'
'He is a key fulcrum point in the pan-Indian creation of an effective Opposition to the BJP.'
'South movies have the perfect script, the perfect action and the perfect romance.' 'That's why these films are running in theatres.'
'Most senior Congress leaders in Assam have a secret understanding with the BJP.' 'They are hobnobbing with the chief minister for their self-interest.'
'We need to have a prosperous J-K, where all communities must prosper including Dogras, Gujjars, Sikhs, Muslims and Pandits.' 'Prosperity is the first signal of peace.'
Less than half the ministers in Team Yogi are not long-term BJP members. Many old-timers have been dropped.
'There is no point in just saying, 'hum wapas bhej denge (we will send Kashmiri Pandits back)'.'
'Use of the word 'genocide' for Kashmiri Pandits is absolutely wrong.'
'There was a revolt. They were fighting for their rights.' 'They lost their rights after colonial forest policies came into place.' 'These freedom fighters were trying to reassert those rights.'
'Priyanka did draw huge crowds and eventually all of those ended up voting for the Samajwadi Party.' 'The voters today are smart enough to vote for the party which they know is going to win or they know this party will come second, but no way will they vote for a party which will come third or fourth.'
'You need a leader whom India can identify with and I cannot think of any other leader except Sachin Pilot in the Congress party.'
'If Mayawati had performed better, then the BJP would have had a much tougher time to win UP.' 'The present gap in number of seats between the BJP and SP would have got reduced.'
'I am not sure of the numbers killed, but they were not as high as the use of the word 'genocide' suggests.' 'There is another meaning you could take, 'cultural genocide', in that the Pandit community is extremely small and their forced departure led to a wiping out of their culture.'
'Every Congress leader in UP and the rest of India is calling me and thanking me that finally someone spoke about this JNU gang ruling the Congress party in UP.'
'The Congress can exist without (someone from) the Nehru-Gandhi family being its president.'
'Yogi was there, but ultimately the BJP got extremely worried and therefore Modi pitched in.'
'That would be very bad for them and suicidal for both the Gandhis and the Congress party.'
'Had the Congress made Sidhu its CM face, they would have won 80 out of 117 seats.'
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