First Quote Added
April 10, 2026
Latest Quote Added
"The responsibility we have to Indian Country is a true federal obligation. it is no different than us having to pay our national debt or the interest on it, because it is a treaty we have signed with these tribes."
"As I said in my opening statement, I want to protect the homeland, I want to bring peace of mind, I want to bring confidence back to the agency. I’m not going to be the smartest guy in any room I walk into, but I know how to get talent and I know how to bring those people together."
"I don’t care what color your state is. I don’t care if you’re red or you’re blue. At the end of the day, my job is to be Secretary of Homeland Security and to protect everybody. (March 24, 2026)"
"I do spank. I have no problem with that."
"I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits to the proper use of force?"
"Tell it to my face, tell the world why you believe I deserved to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken and a damaged lung. And while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to lead DHS."
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.