Hindus From India

"India missed the Industrial Revolution; it cannot afford to miss the Computer Revolution."

"...I had no love for politics. I treasured the privacy of my family life. My mother respected both these sentiments. Then my brother, Sanjay was killed in the prime of his life. It broke a mother’s heart. It did not break a Prime Minister’s will. Without even a day’s break, she carried on her noble task single-minded in fulfilling her pledge to her people There is a loneliness that only a bereaved mother can know...she called to me in her loneliness. I went to her side. At her instance, I left my love for flying at her instance I joined her as a political aide. From her I learned my first political lessons. It was she who urged me to respond to the insistent demand from the constituency and the part to take my brother’s place as Member of Parliament for Amethi. With her blessings I was made General Secretary of my party asking me to accept the challenge of stepping into her shoes. In accepting this challenge I fulfilled a national duty and a filial duty of a son to a mother."

"Our plan cannot be hard and dogmatic. They must change with the times and move with the development of our country. Every year brings new compulsions, new circumstances, and with each Plan these must be taken into consideration."

"Since I have been here from my country I have not played a nicer day than this."

"He was campaigning for the Congress Party on the second day of voting in the world's largest democratic election when a powerful bomb, hidden in a basket of flowers, exploded killing him instantly. It later emerged that a female Tamil Tiger (LTTE) suicide bomber had assassinated Rajiv Gandhi. In 1987 Mr Gandhi, then Prime Minister, had sent Indian Peace Keeping Forces to Sri Lanka in a disastrous attempt to impose peace in the country. The move proved unpopular both at home and abroad and his troops pulled out in 1990."

"A responsive administration is tested most at the point of interface between the administration and the people."

"When a big tree falls, the earth shakes."

"Our party is for the building of the temple to Lord Ram, and we should, if possible, work towards an amicable settlement which, while upholding the principles of secularism, enables the construction of the temple to start, with the approval and support of all concerned. ... The key issue appears to be whether or not there was a temple erected to Lord Ram at the site where the Babri Masjid stands today. This question of historical fact would appear to hold the key to a resolution of the problem to the satisfaction of all reasonable, secular-minded persons of all communities."

"Better a brain drain than a brain in the drain."

"Nothing is more important than the unity and integrity of our nation. India is indivisible. Secularism is the bedrock of our nationhood. It implies more than tolerance. It involves an active effort for harmony. No religion preaches hatred and intolerance. Vested interests, both external and internal, are inciting and exploiting communal passions and violence to divide India."

"India is an old country, but a young nation; and like the young everywhere we are impatient. I am young, and I too have a dream. I dream of an India strong, independent and self-reliant and in the front rank of the nations of the world in the service of mankind."

"Thereby, we have weakened ourselves and fallen prey to the ills that the loss of invigorating mass contact brings. Millions of ordinary Congress workers throughout the country are full of enthusiasm for the Congress policies and programmes. But they are handicapped, for on their backs ride the brokers of power and influence, who dispense patronage to convert a mass movement into a feudal oligarchy.. They are self-perpetuating cliques who thrive by involving the slogans of caste and religion and by enmeshing the living body of the congress in their net of avarice."

"For nation-building, the first requisite is peace— peace with our neighbours and peace in the world. Our security environment has been vitiated."

"When I was inspecting the guard of honor and as I walked past one person, I saw through the corner of my eye some movement. Then I saw a man reverse his rifle at me. I ducked down a little bit in a reflex action. By my ducking, he missed my head and the brunt of the blow came on my shoulder below the left ear."

"Political Independence was only the first step. Sending the British home was only the first step. The struggle still continues. In the last 40-42 years since the advent of Independence, there has been a lot of development, a lot of progress but much more still needs to be done."

"As Rajiv Gandhi was going past me, I got a thought in my head. I thought of how India was helping the terrorists with money, arms and military training. As these thoughts came into my head, when Gandhi was about two or three feet away from me. Yes, I felt an emotion. I despised the Indian Prime Minister. I aimed a blow with my rifle at Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi�s back, below the shoulder."

"The world is changing much too fast for us to have a moribund system which is not flexible, which cannot evolve and develop with changes in our society, in our country, as they come about in the world."

"Rajiv Gandhi was not a great Prime Minister by any yardstick. He had his high points and his low points. He did try hard in some ways, but history will judge him not as a man who left behind a great legacy, but as someone who squandered the greatest opportunity India provided to any Prime Minister in living memory to take the country to new heights. He left the country in chaos and in self-doubt, and the economy in the dust."

"In 1989, Rajiv Gandhi lost the election because he was seen as corrupt by ordinary, rural Indians who made up ditties about the ‘son-in-law of Italy’. The Congress party has never explained why the best friends of Rajiv and his wife, Mr and Mrs Quattrocchi, were bribed in this deal. Nor has there been a credible explanation for why Rajiv did not make public the names of those bribed in this deal, even after Bofors officials came to Delhi and offered to give them.... whoever advised the Congress president (Rahul Gandhi) to continue charging Modi with corruption should have reminded him that the ghost of Bofors still lurks in the shadows of 10 Janpath."

"I don't appreciate this comparison at all. My father was a martyr. He sacrificed his life for the country. And in my heart he can never be compared to any other person."

"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."

"The Bofors scandal was a key issue in Gandhi's 1989 election defeat. He was assassinated while campaigning in 1991."

"Twenty five years ago on 29 July 1987, when the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lanka President J. R. Jayawardene signed the Indo-Lanka accord, it was a day of mourning in the South of Sri Lanka, a day of confusion in the North and East and a miraculous day for India, especially for the Gandhi family. In the South, half of Colombo was on fire. The majority of the people, politicians, the then Prime Minister, many cabinet Ministers and the present President were angered by India. The people of the North and East were in the dark, knowing nothing about the Indo-Lanka accord. At the same time, it was a miraculous escape for the Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi who was attacked by a Sri Lankan Navy soldier with a rifle in an attempted assassination. Fortunately the heavy blow which landed on Gandhi only injured his shoulder, while he was inspecting the guard of honour in Colombo. If the Navy soldier’s strike had hit as planned, today’s history of Sri Lanka would have been very different."

"As far as that event is concerned, I would say it is a great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy for which we deeply regret. We call upon the Government of India and the people of India to be magnanimous, to put the past behind and to approach the ethnic question in a different perspective."

"The terrorists are busy in and outside the country in such activities which are a danger to the unity and integrity of the country."

"Instead of understanding the crisis facing the country and helping the country, the opposition wants to weaken the country by its deeds."

"The late Indira Gandhi always used to warn about the dangers that the country was facing. She used to keep saying that the country was going through a very dangerous time. This danger is now many times more than what it was at that time. We should all be cautious now."

"Every person should take a lesson from history. We should understand that wherever there have been internal fights and conflicts in the country, the country has been weakened. Due to this, the danger from outside increases. The country has to pay a big price due to this type of weakness."

"Love is something absolutely unselfish, that which has no thought beyond the glorification and adoration of the object upon which our affections are bestowed. It is a quality which bows down and worships and asks nothing in return. Merely to love is the sole request that true love has to ask. It is said of a Hindu saint (Mirabai) that when she was married, she said to her husband, the king, that she was already married. To whom?" asked the king. To God," was the reply."

"There is nothing highly wrought bout Mira's style, and no erotic element in her poetry whatsoever. But with her they are instruments used to express a deep and personally felt emotion. She may use the marriage-bed as a symbol of mystical union with God in the manner of Saint -- poets, or as a symbol of the devotee's readiness to give the Lord all that is in his power. But in Mira's poetry there is no tendency to luxuriate in devotional feelings tinged with eroticism."

"The saint Mirabai is the most famous of the women saints of India and can be ranked among the foremost of the mystics of the world."

"Her [Mira;s] childlike simplicity, deep devotion to God, intense spiritual yearning and soulful poetry make the God-intoxicated songs of Meera a national heritage of India, which have transcended regional, lingual, and time barriers and are sung all over India."

"Mira's Bhajans! How can they be not beautiful? I am very familiar with many bhajans of Mirabai. In my Sabarmati Ashram these bhajans are sung repeatedly and with love and devotion to Her. Such rare joy is experienced from her bhajans."

"Mira sang of her love for Krishna with such simplicity and directness that in her songs millions have found a voice and echo of their own God-yearning."

"That dark dweller in Btaj Is my only refuge. O, my companion, Worldly comfort is an illusion, As soon as you get it, it goes I have chosen the Indestructible for my refuge Whom the snake of death Will not devour. My Beloved dwells in my heart, I have actually seen that Abode of Joy. Mir’s Lord is Hari, the Indestructible My Lord, I have taken refuge with Thee Thy slave."

"O my companion, worldly comfort is illusion, As soon you get it, it goes. I have chosen the indestructible for my refuge, Him whom the snake of death will not devour. My beloved dwells in my heart all day, I have actually seen that abode of joy. Meera's lord is Hari, the indestructible. My lord, I have taken refuge with you, your maidservant."

"My lover's gone off to some foreign country, sopping wet at our doorway I watch the clouds rupture. Mira says, nothing can harm him. This passion has yet to be slaked."

"The Great Dancer is my husband," Mira says, "rain washes off all the other colors.”"

"I have felt the swaying of the elephant's shoulders; and now you want me to climb on a jackass? Try to be serious."

"Mother, I have bargained and bought Govinda! Let some say:Cheap!Let some say:Costly! I have weighed in the balance. Let some say:He is in the house, some say!In the woods! Sporting in the company of Radha! When Meera’s Lord Giridhar Krishna comes, love."

"I want you to have this, all the beauty in my eyes, and the grace of my mouth, all the splendor of my strength, all the wonder of the musk parts of my body, for are we not talking about real love, real love?”"

"For your sake, I gave up all pleasures, Now why are you making me long for you? You create the pang of separation inside the bosom So that you can come and quench it? O! Lord! Now I will not leave you Smilingly, call me soon! Meera is your servant in birth after birth Unite me with you in every limb."

"Don't forget love; it will bring all the madness you need to unfurl yourself across the universe."

"One night as I walked in the desert the mountains rode on my shoulders and the sky became my heart, and the earth - my own body, I explored. Every object began to wink at me, and Mira wisely calculated thinking, My charms must be at their height now would be a good time to rush into his arms, maybe He won't drop me so quick."

"Mukesh took that vision [His father’s vision] to the next level at the beginning of India’s explosive growth in the late 1990s and 2000s and turning his father’s growing conglomerate into India’s largest company, whose taxes alone provide 5percent of all national government revenues."

"The most discussed building in Mumbai is probably the twenty –seven- story of Mukesh Ambani India’s wealthiest man and the head of Reliance Industries. Ambani’s personal wealth is estimated at just under $ 25 billion, just about a billion for each floor of his Mumbai home."

"Mukesh cut his teeth at the group’s Patalganga plant immediately after his stint at Stanford."

"Mukesh Ambani joined reliance in 1981 and imitated Reliance’s backward integration from textiles in to polyester fibres and further into petrochemicals."

"Mukesh is the hands-on manufacturing and operations man"

"Mukesh has to his credit the direction and leading the creation of the world’s largest petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, India with a capacity of 540,000 barrels per day integrated with petrochemicals, power generation, port and related infrastructure at an investment of 25,000 crores."