First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"We have to be clear about one thing. Cote d’Ivoire, like many African countries, is not yet a democratic state. We are a democratizing state. We experienced thirty years of single-party regime from 1960 to 1990. We experienced ten years of fairly chaotic democratization, which culminated in ten months of military regime. These are the negative factors. On the positive side, we truly have a population that is thirsting for liberty, democratization and transparency. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the cabinet that I have assembled to carry on the democratization work and to complete the process. That’s our primary mission."
"I have been observing this fracture since when I was 15 years old, that is since our independence in 1960. At first, theAgnis [an ethnic group in the eastern part of the country] felt that they were excluded and marginalized. The Sanwis, a sub-group among the Agnis, wanted to secede at that time. Later, the Bétés [an ethnic group in the midwest] felt that they were excluded and marginalized (I am a Bété myself). Today, the people in the north feel that they are excluded and marginalized (they felt so before my election and still do today)."
"Even in the period of reconciliation, the Ivorian state is not in a negotiation with anyone. The state is asking the children of the nation to sit around the negotiation table and say, individually, what they feel is wrong in Cote d’Ivoire. The state, and only the state, will look for remedies to the problems that will be diagnosed."
"I'm not a kamikaze,"
"I won the election and I'm not negotiating my departure. I find it absolutely incredible that the entire world is playing this ... game of poker."
"I love life. My voice is not the voice of a martyr, no, no, no, I'm not looking for death. It's not my aim to die."
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.