Ministers Of Law And Justice India

"The main problem is his (Narendra Modi) extraordinarily unhealthy centralization of decision making. And the utter disregard that party president (Amit Shah) has for the workers."

"This is not a Modi wave, but a Hindutva wave. Hindus are rising above caste. The younger generation of voters is very important. They are young nationalists. They don’t care about caste."

"This family is totally anti-national as far as India is concerned. (but) I must tell you this much: Rajiv Gandhi and I were very, very close friends, extremely close friends. In Parliament when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister, he used to sit next to me along the aisle. After he lost office, he and I used to meet at 2 am everyday for two hours. So I know almost everything about the circumstances in which he got married, and what the relationship between the two (Rajiv and Sonia) was. I thought well of Rajiv. He was a great patriot, thought he would make a great Prime Minister if he came back for the second time around, and I supported him. Openly, on the floor of Parliament, I said, he didn’t get the Bofors money, Ottavio Quattrocchi (Sonia’s close friend) got it, and these were proved quite later, too late."

"I cannot say I am anti-Nehru-Gandhi family per se, but I certainly was, from Day 1 anti-Nehru. Even when I was a school student, I took an intuitive dislike for Jawaharlal Nehru. There was no explanation. I just had it! The dislike was continuous as I learnt more and more about him. Therefore, to say that I have a pathological hatred for the Nehru-Gandhi family is not correct. Yes, I never liked Nehru, but that was pure policy. And, of course, I later on came to know that he gave up the offer of the UN Security Council, and then what he did on Kashmir, and the files I saw when I was one of the senior-most ministers in the Chandra Shekhar government. All this only bolstered that view."

"Pervez Musharraf is a good friend. I was once asked to inaugurate his office in Rawalpindi because his mother wanted a Brahmin to inaugurate it. He's truly integrated with our culture."

"Income tax must be abolished. We must also increase the Fixed Deposit interest rates."

"I’m an ordinary member of the BJP. If one were to say that the BJP is represented by Modi and Amit Shah, I have nothing to do with them. If BJP is essentially a party floated by the RSS, I’m a part of that."

"I meet BJP MPs in the RSS shakhas. I sit with the BJP MPs (in Rajya Sabha), who are all extremely friendly. Yes, but it is a highly disciplined party. They don’t like to disobey decisions taken at the top. I think that is wrong in a democratic society. I’m very critical of the complete lack of knowledge of economics that is being foisted on us."

"Varun Gandhi is a nice chap, hardworking, intelligent, studies a lot, writes books, and he has won the Lok Sabha election three times. The party should use him. You have to get out of this notion that the BJP is owned by Modi and Amit Shah."

"Everyone thought that nothing could nail the Gandhi family, Swamy showed it’s possible."

"He (Swamy) was very well spoken of, and he was very popular."

"I saw an upset-looking gentleman alongside me watching the fire. I asked why he was there. He said that all the notes and research for his current book, inside that building, was literally going up in smoke. That was Subramanian Swamy, then a young economics instructor."

"I'm in politics because I want to be the prime minister some day. At 41, I'm old enough to run the country, though young enough to wait."

"If Subramanian Swamy did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. He is a multifaceted intellectual dynamo. He has been elected to the Lok Sabha six times and Rajya Sabha three times. He earned a PhD from Harvard University standing first. He also taught at the university. During Emergency he became the Indian Scarlet Pimpernel. An arrest warrant had been issued against him. Regardless, he turned up at Parliament House, signed the Rajya Sabha attendance register and eloped."

"Academics and observers of the academy have for several weeks now been professing shock at what even one of the perpetrators has called unprecedented at Harvard – the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ striking of uncontroversial economics courses taught by now-controversial Indian politician Subramanian Swamy, without even inviting him to defend himself. But we should not be surprised. Punishment for uttering politically incorrect ideas, often with little regard for fair procedure, has plagued Harvard students, faculty members, and even, in the eyes of some, one now-former Harvard president over the past two decades. The disgraceful action taken against Professor Swamy is par for the course."

"In the present state of appalling gloom which has given birth to such wreckers of national unity as V.P. Singh and L.K. Advani, Swamy in comparison appears to be a man of patriotic commitment despite his provocative idiosvncracies."

"If Bangladesh does not agree to take back its people, then the country should compensate by giving land to India."

"What kids see on the internet is mostly pornography and that is dangerous. The internet is being used as a platform for misinformation, selling spurious drugs and for terrorist activities. It is a great medium but being misused to bring about disaffection among people."

"If Dr Swamy talks sense he is an SJP (Samajwadi Janata Party) leader, when he talks nonsense he is the Janata Party president."

"Producers nowadays want item numbers. So I have penned one for this film. Cinema is the most effective way of creating awareness and spreading social message. Through this film I would like to convey the message of happiness, humanity and harmony."

"We did not receive cooperation from various departments, but still we are able to provide the tablet to the people."

"I am extremely pained by the methodology adopted by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India in coming to some figures which have no basis whatsoever. Their exercise was fraught with very serious errors."

"Operation Bluestar was a mischievous blunder and it should not have been done."

"A mosque is not a religious place. It is just a building. It can be demolished any time. If anyone disagrees with me on this, I am ready to have a debate on the issue. I got this information from people of Saudi Arabia."

"If I can persuade Rajiv Gandhi and Chandra Shekhar to come together, I have sufficient self-confidence to make the prime minister Chandra Shekhar accommodate this concept of liberalism."

"The US wants only 51 per cent adherence as against 100 per cent adherence demanded by Russia."

"My mission has been to liquidate the Janata Dal. It is an illegitimate organisation."

"During the last few years, the party organisation has been neglected at all levels. There has been a complete neglect of party finances, front organisations and district level committees. I will concentrate on the organisation. Maybe because of my Jan Sangh background, I will do better. If I become the president, half the BJP will join the Janata."

"Sometimes it’s difficult in politics to actually tell the truth."

"Freedom of expression doesn't mean tweeting through fake accounts. If the government has to be transparent, Twitterati should also reciprocate. This will help stop defamatory and criminal traffic on the Net. We should amend the law to force disclosure of identity."

". “Yes he has been arrested for raising his voice agst PM Modi for his illegal acts in Kashmir by scraping the sp status of Kashmir. He raised his voice in favour of oppressed Kashmiris. Note it Mr Chidambaram is going to be ur next PM. He is capable politician.”"

"We have a duopoly of two vaccines, but they are hardly sufficient to vaccinate a nation of 138 crore people."

"What the finance minister has done is give petty, and usually corrupt, officials the right to march into your home or mine and take it over if according to his assessment, we haven’t paid enough taxes….we never before had a Finance Minister who believes he has the fundamental right to trample upon our rights in the name of tax collection. The most they did in the past was ‘raid’ those they suspected of evading taxes. A barbaric enough practice in a country that fancies itself as civilised, but baby stuff compared to what Chidambaram now orders his goons to do….the Finance Minister has also decided that tax inspectors will be held responsible if they fail to ‘attach’ in advance the property of a possible defaulter. Draconian is too mild a word for what the Finance Minister is up to, but we must remember that this is the man who once gave us TADA and the Defamation Bill. There are other reasons to fight for our right to property, and they concern the poorest of the poor. Because Indians do not have the right to own property, policemen and municipal officials routinely confiscate and destroy property belonging to pavement hawkers, rickshawallahs and streetchildren. These are people who constitute what our politicians like to call the ‘weakest sections’ of the society, so let us have no qualms in acknowledging that the Prime Minister’s move to introduce reservations for ‘weaker sections’ in private companies is for political and not compassionate reasons. Had any Prime Minister one ounce of compassion for the ‘weaker sections’, he would have arrested officials and policemen who steal from pavement hawkers and rickshawallahs….Meanwhile, I have a proposition for P Chidambaram. If he insists on going ahead with the mad idea, then let us begin in Parliament. Let every Member of Parliament’s declaration of assets be scrutinised not just by the Finance Ministry’s unreliable policemen but us. Let us find out how men who began their career in politics with a few hundred rupees to their name became owners of lakhs and crores worth of assets. I am willing to bet that men who have declared themselves worth only a couple of lakhs will be wearing watches that cost more than that. Let us set up a citizen’s tribunal before which the MPs can appear and have their assets publicly scrutinised. Let us ask them the sort of questions tax inspectors ask when they barge into people’s homes: How much is that shawl, that pair of shoes, that bangle for? Who paid for these things? Where are the bills? Can you prove they were heirlooms? If not, we hereby attach your property. If our elected representatives are prepared to go through with this kind of exercise and if our ministers and wives also come forward to explain how they acquired their crores worth of assets, then it would be fair for the Finance Minister to go ahead with the draconian new measures. Otherwise, it is time he woke up to the reality that India is no longer an economic dictatorship, and can never be. All he will achieve through his madcap schemes is to widen the roads of corruption. The only people who must be thrilled by his new measures are the tax inspectors. Does P Chidambaram not understand this?"

"It is the vaccine or vaccines that will win the war against COVID-19, not the government or mythological beliefs."

"“What will India do if Pakistan designates August 15 as ‘Partition Horrors Condemnation Day’?” “Hostility apart, India and Pakistan are neighbours. We can change our friends but we cannot change our neighbours. India should behave as a mature and seasoned nation.”"

"Government must immediately provide funds to ramp up production in India and increase supplies. Government must also authorise the use of more approved vaccines and allow their manufacture or import."

"Chidambaram was the first big leader to give credence of the hypothesis of Hindu terror at an official level. While chairing a meeting of state police chiefs on 25 August 2010, he termed ‘saffron terror’ as a major threat to the nation. He drew flak for giving prominence to left-wing insurgency and the alleged Hindu terrorism over Jihadi terrorism during the meeting. It was the time when the line of investigation of the NIA investigation was completely changed and anti-Hindu propaganda was in full swing."

"It (Pakistan) is not a failed state, but it is threatening to become one.A great concern is weighing on our minds. In Pakistan, with regret, I would say we don't know who is in control there. Whether it is the army or the president or the government"

"This is complete rubbish. They did this a month and a half ago when there was another incident. We want peace in South Asia. We want no terror in South Asia. We don't export terror. We have zero tolerance for terror whether it is within India or outside India. Pakistan is only taking half measures in the fight against terrorism. Pakistan is paying the price for not heeding our advice."

"It is shocking, It is quite obvious that security of the Sri Lankan players has been hopelessly inadequate. We condemn the shooting and we hope that players like Samaraweera and Mendis are safe and will recover."

"I strongly condemn the statement of a BJP leader and a Member of Parliament that the BJP has come here to eradicate ‘Periyarism’ (Periyar policy) in Tamil Nadu. Father Periyar was the one who fought and won against the poisonous policy of ‘Sanatana Dharma’."

"Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was fearless. He propogated love and humanity. He loved people and gave them a thought of humanity. Babasaheb never gave up he was fearless. So today I have had difficulties, problems or situation is bad I remember Babasaheb. That's why I get inspiration from him. That's why Babasaheb is my role model""

"The year 1940 was coming to an end when Ambedkar's magnum opus, Thoughts on Pakistan, was published. Written at a psychological moment, it fell like a bombshell on the heated atmosphere of the day... This historic book castigates the anti-reformist tendency of the Muslims... Some penetrating and caustic paragraphs describing the regressive bent of the Muslim mind, however, were deleted, it is said, at the instance of Ambedkar's close admirers. Otherwise [Ambedkar] would have experienced what H.G. Wells experienced at the hands of Muslims in London!... Thoughts on Pakistan is a masterpiece in which learning and thinking are blended and displayed at their highest order. It is entracing in its magic, intriguing in its construction, terse in its style, and provocative in its manner. It is a model in scientific propagation.... The effect of this book was terrible... It was applauded as an epitome of the political and social history of India; and it rocked Indian politics for over a decade. The Muslims rejoiced at this support to their ideal."

"Dr. Ambedkar has become a saint, and his opinions can now only be recited and quoted as final authority, but not subjected to any criticism on penalty of being dubbed "Brahminical reactionary". Dr. Ambedkar was a complex personality, not fit for simple glorification, nor of course for vilification. Undoubtedly, he was a very strong man, who stood his ground, and who rendered sterling services to the nation. On his intellectual achievements, our judgment will be more diversified. He was essentially a Western-educated man, and had imbibed some of the condescending incomprehension so typical of westernized Natives. Yet, among this class of Western-educated Indians, there is hardly any who has to such extent freed himself from pervasive prejudices and fashionable beliefs, such as the claim of a racial basis of caste. Because he himself had suffered the humiliation which many caste Hindus kept on inflicting on the untouchables, it is not abnormal that he was intemperately bitter against Hinduism. Nevertheless, he remained loyal to Hinduism in the broad sense, and rejected eager offers to take his followers into mass conversion to soul- greedy and imperialist religions. If we have uttered some criticism of his intellectual shortcomings regarding specific subjects, we could do so in a spirit of respect because we are also aware of his substantial intellectual qualities and merits, apart from his well-known political achievements for his country and his community. As an independent thinker, Dr. Ambedkar contrasts brightly with wind-bags like M.N. Roy and Jawaharlal Nehru, whose parrotting of fashionable slogans has not prevented them from remaining trendsetters for the secularist elite which is still ruling India. If he was not perfect in every respect, we would say that there is only so much which a man can do in a lifetime, so if a busy politician could not always find the time to seek out all the historical facts about complex subjects, it is really not abnormal."

"Ambedkar took a cool and hard look at Islam as a sworn enemy of Hindu society, even while being bitterly critical of the latter. Dr. Ambedkar was particularly outspoken about the social injustices in Islam, especially in his book Pakistan or the Partition of India... Many of Dr. Ambedkar’s observations on Islam would now be branded as “Hindu communalist” by the very people who claim his heritage. In fact, the literature of the RSS Parivar offers no counterpart to Ambedkar’s strong language about Islam: he was more openly anti-Islamic than Savarkar, Golwalkar or any Hindutva stalwart who is regularly accused of being just that. From the Hindu Revivalist point of view, Ambedkar, in writing his incisive criticism of Islam, did the homework which the Hindutva ideologues neglected... At Sangh Parivar functions, a picture of Ambedkar is mostly displayed along with pictures of Maharana Pratap, Shivaji, Guru Govind Singh, Hedgewar, Golwalkar and other more obvious Hindutva heroes. During BJP President L.K. Advani's flopped Rath Yatra (car procession) before the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, his car carried just two pictures: of freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose and of Dr. Ambedkar."

"Sitting in the Chair and watching the proceedings from day to day, I have realised as nobody else could have, with what zeal and devotion the members of the Drafting Committee and especially its Chairman, Dr. Ambedkar in spite of his indifferent health, have worked. We could never make a decision which was or could be ever so right as when we put him on the Drafting Committee and made him its Chairman. He has not only justified his selection but has added lustre to the work which he has done."

"There is not one instance, not one single, solitary instance in which Ambedkar participated in any activity connected with the struggle to free the country. Quite the contrary- at every possible turn he opposed the campaigns of the national movement, at every setback to the movement he was among those cheering for failure."

"Dr. Ambedkar never got disappointed with difficult tasks, but faced the situation with great courage. I am especially appealing to the younger generation of students to take a leaf out of Dr. Ambedkar's life. At difficult times, his life can be a great inspiration.... [Ambedkar] came to the RSS camp in Pune and appreciated its patriotism, discipline and complete absence of untouchability. But he said he was in a hurry and Sangh work appears to be a little slow.... We salute the Architect of our Constitution, his erudition and hard work, his great patriotism and practical outlook. But it was natural that he could not stomach the indignities heaped on the Dalits and the attitude of our upper castes in the Hindu society appeared to change too slowly. Let us take a vow on this occasion to make the Hindu society free from aberrations, a society full of harmony, self-confidence and knowledge, so that it can carry the message of the great Rishis to the whole world."

"...though Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar had been a Buddhist for only seven weeks, during that period he had probably done more for the promotion of Buddhism than any other Indian since Ashoka. At the time of this death three quarters of a million Untouchables had become Buddhists, and in the months that followed hundreds of thousands more took the same step – despite the uncertainty and confusion that had been created by the sudden loss of their great leader… This was Ambedkar’s last and greatest achievement, so that even though it was as the Architect of the Constitution of Free India and the Modern Manu that he passed into official history and is today most widely remembered, his real significance consists in the fact that it was he who established a revived Indian Buddhism on a firm foundation."

"He (Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar) had pioneered the renaissance of Buddhism in India and was responsible for millions embracing Buddhism in the land of its birth."