“It doesn’t escape me for one moment that so much joy in my life is thanks to so much pain in someone else’s.”
Lupita Nyong’O, accepting the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Patsey, a real-life slave girl in 12 Years a Slave (Time, March 17)
“We never want to run a government for the rich. We know that we need industries, manufacturing centres but we will not forget our poor people.”
Rahul Gandhi, Congress vice-president at a rally in Sonitpur, Assam (March 27)
“What the people of India want, just as the angry middle classes in Ukraine, Bosnia, Thailand and Venezuela do, is a government that is accountable, responsible, and effective in moving their country further into the modern world.”
Jack Gladstone, professor George Mason University, USA (The Hindu, March 29)
“There is every danger that a Modi-led India will be an India marked by soft fascism. At its core, fascism stands for state authoritarianism, intimidation by conservative-minded extra-legal groups, national chauvinism, submission of individuals and groups to a larger-than-life leader, and a Darwinian view of social life (the strong must prevail).”
Kanti Bajpai, international affairs expert, on India’s future under the leadership of Narendra Modi (Times of India, March 29)
“He (M.J. Akbar) has too much pride to survive in that nasty place. I give him six months.”
Aakar Patel, columnist, on noted journalist M.J. Akbar joining the BJP (Mint Lounge, March 29)
“In end 2012, againt the sanctioned strength of 924 in the Directorate of Civil Aviation, 528 posts were vacant — unsurprisingly, India’s air safety was downgraded to category II by the United States Federal Aviation Administration.”
Editorial in Business Standard (March 29)
