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April 10, 2026
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"We get very complacent about the state of our democracy. We think that because we’ve got parliament, and people get elected, that’s the democracy box ticked. It’s not."
"No, I’m not going on Strictly. I won't dance. Don't ask me. Our primary job is running the country. We've got to a state now where most of us are more fixated on our two-minute clip on Twitter than a sustained, nuanced argument."
"[On the damage done to politician's public reputation by the actions of MPs such as Boris Johnson] We've gone from 45 per cent of people thinking we're all terrible and lying all the time to 80 per cent. That is really problematic. Government is by consent and if the people no longer think that, in the main, parliament is there to defend their rights and freedoms, then the danger is they'll go, "What is the point of democracy?" It's easy for someone to say it's a lot more efficient to just have someone in charge. Why bother with getting things through the House? Why bother with persuading people? That’s the danger."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.