|
• 'It should have by now become clear that a mosque could not come up at Ayodhya'
'Whatever the government may say, there is no denying that they (reforms) are being implemented on the dictates of the Western powers,' says nominated Rajya Sabha member'Cho' S Ramaswamy.
• 'I do not want to be a hijra'
'I intend to clean up the system. We are determined to fight corruption in Indian society and we will take whatever measures that may be necessary to do our job.' Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal in an exclusive interview to rediff.com
• 'Extensions to more communities might well make the concept of reservations meaningless'
'Any community that has numerical strength and is conventionally backward but not really backward seeks reservation for itself,' says Professor D L Sheth, member of the first National Backward Classes Commission.
• 'The face reveals everything about a person'
'No painter has inspired me. Only life has. Life and experience.' Former prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh speaks to Pritish Nandy about his life as an artist.
• 'CM's job is not a bed of roses'
'It is not an easy job but I think I did my best to see that the cyclone-affected are nursed well. The relief work has, of course, been hampered by the week-long crisis of change of guard in the state.' Giridhar Gamang, the short-term CM of Orissa, defends his government.
• 'We are down but not out'
'My first job is to give priority to relief and rehabilitation to the lakhs of
cyclone-affected, and give the people of the state credible, correct and active governance,' says Orissa's new chief minister, Hemananda Biswal.
• 'Our party does not needlessly force a
confrontation. Action is taken when it is called for'
'The basic thing is, if the party entrusts you with position
and power, you have got to be answerable. You cannot think you are
indispensable and that you can take many things for granted,' says BJP vice president J P Mathur, who heads his party's disciplinary committee.
• 'This is the time to take corrective measures'
'When the AICC
observers met the MLAs a couple of days back a majority of them
reportedly suggested my name. So how could there be 47 who
went against me? The arithmetic does not seem correct,' says J B Patnaik who nurses the dream of once again becoming Orissa CM.
• 'If the Westminster type is not working, there is no guarantee that a new type of Constitution will also work'
Former Cabinet secretary B G Deshmukh asks if there is need to review the Constitution.
'The support for the army is widespread'
'What was intriguing was the sort of collective amnesia that had taken place. It was almost like having turned the page from the Nawaz Sharief era, all that which happened during his rule was expunged, as if it had never happened,' says Salman Haidar, the former Indian foreign secretary who is now involved in Track 2 diplomacy.
'Our school books talk about Socrates, Plato and Aristotle but don't mention Yajnavalkya, Panini and Patanjali'
'India has had cultural continuity for at least 10,000 years. Not only are we one of the most ancient civilizations... Artistic, philosophical and religious impulses, central to the history of mankind, arose first in India.' Dr Subhash Kak, a renowned authority on ancient Indian science and technology, speaks to Rajeev Srinivasan.
'We don't see Pakistan as an ally at all'
'That notion disappeared a long time ago. There were people who favoured Pakistan because of historical reasons, but those things do not exist anymore. At the same time, India's good work in sorting out differences with the US on different issues has helped,' US Congressman Gary L Ackerman tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'The Church in Asia is different. Here it is perceived as a foreign entity'
''This concept is quite vivid in many cultures and in many countries. In contrast to other Asian religions, Christianity is perceived as having an outside influence. This 'foreigner' status of the Church has made evangelisation and inculturation very difficult in Asia,'' Hong Kong-based Church activist Annie Lam tells George Iype
'Rajiv killers don't deserve any mercy'
''Let me ask you one thing. Why didn't these same people file clemency petitions for Auto Sankar. The truth is that some people have been bought over by the LTTE. These people are working for money,'' says Tamizhaka Rajiv Congress chief Vazhappadi Ramamurthy.
'What has the NBA done to promote the cause of thirsty people in north Gujarat and Saurashtra?'
Gujarat's Narmada Minister Jayanarayan Vyas hits out against the dam's opponents.
'We have to prepare for the coming new century, or be left behind'
'There is greater consensus today than ever before on the need for a
fresh mindset. No matter how relevant our economic policies may have
been in the '60s, '70s or '80s, in the changed global scenario we have
to take hard decisions.' Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee tells Pritish Nandy.
'Today, you have to seize whatever opportunity comes your way'
'Yes, I would like to keep track of every development work in all 224 assembly constituencies. One major area of concentration would be roads. I will be announcing a very big programme tomorrow about road development. I would like to use a software to help me monitor all this,' Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna tells M D Riti.
Gary's People
'You know what happened in Kargil and what's happening in the valley. We
have captured thousands of people who have told us everything: Who
recruited them, who armed them, who trained them -- everything. And the
intelligence agencies on that side are not bothered! This kind of thing
is brazen and crude. They feel they can get away with it because
of the restraint that we exercise in the matter of not enlarging the
conflict,' Jammu and Kashmir Governor Girish Chandra Saxena tells Varsha Bhosle.
'We must be No 1 again'
'For 25 years I have grown and matured in Maharashtra politics, from a village sarpanch I have finally become chief minister. This is like an anniversary gift to me. I must now try and live up to the expectations,' says Maharashtra's new man at the helm, Vilasrao Deshmukh.
'The protests are not the voice of Indian people and the Indian government'
'The Vatican is very clear about one thing, that the anti-Christian groups in India do not represent the people of India and therefore it is not significant,' says Bishop Piero Marini, a close aide of the Pope and director of the Vatican's Office of Liturgical Celebration.
'The Church has harmed many Hindu families and communities and is still willing to do so'
'As a former Catholic, I am well aware that most Catholics have no real
respect for Hinduism. My uncle became a missionary to convert Native
Americans and save them from hell, and Hindus are placed in the same
category,' says Dr David Frawley, a former Catholic and director of the American Institute of Vedic Studies.
'The Christian tradition has much to learn from the Hindu tradition'
'I felt somehow that there was a certain weakness in the modern, Christian view of the
universe. So, when I came across this view, vision or darshan of Ramanuja, I felt this was
something that I, as a Christian, should take seriously and make it a part of me.' British missionary Dr Eric Lott on his fascination.
'We only want him [the Pope] to repeat that all religions are one and the same'
'He is going to come to the country, address his bishops, and tell them to go out and preach that Christianity is the only religion and Jesus Christ is the only solution on salvation,' says Seshadri Chari, editor of the RSS weekly, Organiser.
'We should not relax our vigil on borders'
'We have to first watch developments in Pakistan before we can talk in terms of holding some kind of negotiations with them. We should not down our antennas.' Former prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral is greatly concerned about the coup in Pakistan.
'Subject science to reform without any delay or it will die'
IIS Director Dr Goverdhan Mehta expresses his concern about the terrible condition of scientific education and research in the country.
'There was no consultation over the names. It was George's duty, if not courtesy, to do so'
'He should have at least had the basic decency, to tell me, "Look, there are elections coming in Bihar. We need to prepare the JD-U, and we therefore need to accommodate one more MP from there," and I would have understood. After all, becoming a minister is no one's birthright,' Ramakrishna Hegde tells Krishna Prasad.
'I have to defend the innocent'
'The case has to be reopened. Statements and confessions recorded under TADA cannot be, should not be, considered. When you take away those, there is no case at all. There is no evidence,' says S Duraisamy, the defence lawyer of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination accused.
'They are innocent. We'll do everything to free them'
'The Delhi court has released 19 saying that they have not done anything wrong and you are still insisting. They are not involved in the conspiracy or the killing. Directly or indirectly, they are not involved,' says P Nedumaran, the Tamil Nadu politician who collected funds to defend the accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.
'Victory brings its own set of problems'
'Like providing good governance to the people. We put together an
implementable manifesto, and we should now put that into action. That is a
gigantic task in itself, and the new Congress government in Karnataka
should rise up to it as quickly as possible,' says S M Krishna.
Mary Robinson hails India's human rights gains
But the under-secretary-general of human rights says she is concerned about attacks on religious and caste minorities.
'We are not right or left but only forward'
'It is the debt of your ancestors you are paying for centuries of oppression. Merit of the individual is secondary to the merit of the nation. Reservation is
the remedy for social and cultural deprivation,' argues BJP leader Govindacharya.
'Sonia will do very well as prime minister'
'Who has had the experience of running the country as prime minister? Did Atal Bihariji have any experience as prime minister?' asks Congress veteran N D Tiwari.
'Naidu's contribution cannot be measured in direct terms'
'Naidu has taken several initiatives - the creation of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, International Business School, Hi-Tec City, etc - which would bring results in the long term,' says B V R Mohan Reddy.
'When Vajpayeeji's government is reinstalled, naturally my party has to be repaid'
'Jyoti Basu has told his partymen in the rural areas that he will have their guts for garters if the Trinamul makes a similar showing there as my party did in and around Calcutta last year. That is the level of the chief minister's fright,' says Mamta Banerjee
'The BJP is selling something which gives indigestion to the people of Bengal'
'The BJP can never get a hold on Bengal. For that reason, I think the BJP-Trinamul alliance is very temporary. Mamta is bound to go away,' feels former chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray.
'If a leader is a leader, he cannot be sidelined'
'I was a minister under Narasimha Rao when I ordered the arrest of Chandra Swami. Was I sidelined? Could he sideline me?' Rajesh Pilot, in a forthright interview.
'My goal is to bring together Mulayam Singh and Kalyan Singh under a common banner'
'I wish to forge a realignment of backward forces and change the course of the country's politics and undo the damage caused by the likes of Sharad Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav to the cause of the OBCs,' says Sachchidanand Sakshi Maharaj.
'Results will speak for my performance'
'I don't want to paint a rosy picture. But, I must say that we all have worked very hard to revive the Congress party in the state. We have had to rebuild the organisation in the state from scratch. We gave ideological bites to our grassroots workers. We achieved the almost impossible task of winning back the minorities,' says Salman Khurshid.
'The future chief minister of Karnataka will
be my leader Yediyurappa, the man who built the BJP brick by brick...'
'When the people empower us to govern, as I am sure they will this time too, why should we sit in the opposition?' asks Aviation Minister, and potential chief minister of Karnataka, Ananth Kumar.
'Kalyan Singh has destroyed Uttar Pradesh'
'I am contesting because I want save the people of Rampur from being divided. Vested interests have been trying to divide our people on the basis of their caste and religion. The Bharatiya Janata Party is at the forefront of this effort. But they will not succeed,' says Begum Noor Bano.
'Congress should be happy if it manages to win Amethi'
'Atal Bihari Vajpayee's charisma is one factor that is working across the country. The National Democratic Alliance will get more than 320 seats and Atal Bihari Vajpayee will head the new government,' says Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
'A Congress government will certainly be headed only by her'
'The Congress is not averse to Left parties because they have already pledged their support to Sonia months ago. We do not want to mix national politics with state politics,' says K Karunakaran.
'I want the PM's position to be a matter of pride for India'
'I am asking a simple question. Had Sonia Gandhi been a Negress, would these people have accepted her? No. The Indians are obsessed with white skin.' S Gurumurthy, outspoken!
'Manipulators get exposed in due course'
'Congressmen never show their own face and win an election. They always show someone else's face. They are incapable of doing anything without the Gandhi family, dead or alive,' says Anant Nag.
'We are not in
a hurry, the Ram temple is going to come and nobody can prevent it'
Naturally there will be more crowds to see Jayalalitha
because they don't otherwise get an opportunity to see her at all. That does not mean that
people will vote for her or support her. BJP's Tamil Nadu general secretary L Ganeshan speaks his mind.
'When they see me, even chain smokers stub their cigarettes'
'My job is to see that Ram lalla is not shifted. I know nobody on this planet can do it.' ... 'I think Digvijay Singh feels threatened by me.'... 'With Advaniji I keep a distance.' Uma Bharti, as never before!
'Elections in J&K have not been fair since 1987'
'With 5 or 10 per cent of polling what is the representative character? But the Constitution is such that even if there is only one per cent polling people get elected,' says Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
'We compromised on the Shah Bano case. That was our undoing'
'We made a few mistakes. We deviated from Congress ideology at times. I think we are again on the right course now.' Digvijay Singh in candour mode.
'Last time we were given 374 companies of additional forces, this time we got only eight'
J&K DGP Gurbachan Jagat speaks about the security arrangements needed for polls in his state and the constraints he faces.
'Vajpayee has proved to be a non-performing PM'
'We should be getting 25, 30 seats...' 'My friendship with the Ambanis is very personal. The old man likes me and I have great respect for him.' MP Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, in a candid interview.
'Advani has a very great contempt for the Constitution of India'
'Kashmir is totally secular; it can never become part of Pakistan. They can never settle in the puritanism of Jamaat-I-Islami and other outfits there.' Professor Saifuddin Soz tells Varsha Bhosle.
'With all this corruption and malpractices, Dr Abdullah's regime goes scot-free because Delhi needs him'
Professor Saifuddin Soz, who is contesting this Saturday's Lok Sabha election from Baramulla, tells Varsha Bhosle.
'This is the toughest election I have ever faced'
'If the Akali Dal had not split, we would have bagged all 13 seats. But because of the division in Akali votes we will lose a few seats to the Congress,' says Union minister Surjeet Singh Barnala.
'My politics is more a matter of the heart than the head'
'Our (mine and mother's) political thinking is poles apart. But still I do draw the line somewhere and I don't think it is very healthy for two members of the same family to fight each other in the same constituency,' says Madhavrao Scindia.
'There are political compulsions, but we would like to go at it alone'
'My son has a good equation with the youth, more than anybody else. He does not have some of the defects I have. My relationship with the workers, my approach is bureaucratic, his is not,' says K Natwar Singh.
'I am here to redefine election as a cultural exercise and stop it from being a political stunt'
'I was certain about one thing: that if I would ever contest an election, it would always be on a CPI-M
ticket because I have always been a Left-supporter ideologically and
practically,' says Malayalam actor Murali, the party's candidate for the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency.
'There is a Sonia wave'
'Pawar has already cut a deal with the BJP. He thinks by this his nephew (Ajit Pawar) will become chief minister of Maharashtra and he can become the deputy prime minister of India,' says A R Antulay.
'In a democracy, the people also look at the Opposition's performance'
'Pawar's leadership has failed all over the state. And the leadership he is giving to the state is Chhagan Bhujbal, and no one can believe Bhujbal means business,' says Bombay's only 4-time MP, Ram Naik.
'The only issue political parties must contest on is the economy'
'Of course we will gain in the election, because there is a clear division of votes of the Congress and Republican Party,' says former Maharashtra CM Manohar Joshi.
'For us this is dharm yudha. For us this is jihad'
'Defeat the Congress for deception. They went back on their promise, which they gave us in their election manifestos of 1993 and 1998. They said they would give us reservation.' Jat Mahasabha leader Dr Gyan Prakash Pilania, in an exclusive interview.
'The regional leaders will
feel deserted when the BJP reveals its fangs'
'The BJP is not like any other bourgeois party. They will not just rule for five years and go away. Once the RSS captures the country's administration and the polity they will go over to a fascist type of Hindu raj. Fascism in India means Hindu rashtra: one language, one country, one religion,' says Marxist leader N Sankaraiah.
'How can you assess
performance in 13 months?'
'When I have already taken a decision never to fight an election
in my life, what sense does it make to stop me from contesting? As for
voting, every crook, every criminal, every terrorist can vote but they
don't want me to vote. So be it. I won't,' says Bal Thackeray.
'We sacrificed ourselves for democracy and secularism'
'We will play a significant role to strengthen the Third Front and try our best to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party away from power. I am optimistic that the different JD factions will come together,' holds Chand Mahal Ibrahim, H D Deve Gowda's right arm, and candidate in Kozhikode.
'Sonia has charisma'
'People have not realised that fully yet, because they are so busy comparing her with Indira and Rajiv, which is not a fair thing to do,' feels former Karnataka CM S Bangarappa, in a delightful interview.
'The 1984 anti-Sikh riot is part of history now'
'So long as the Pakistani woman has accepted Indian citizenship, she accepts the Indian system and wants to participate in the Indian political system, let her go ahead. Eventually, it is for the
Indian people to decide whether to accept her or not,' says Captain Amarinder Singh.
'The Congress will have to drag me to make me a minister'
Amberish K Diwanji catches up with the redoubtable T N Seshan on the campaign trail in Gandhinagar.
'It is wrong to say Pawar is all that powerful in Maharashtra'
'I think there is a political trick to defeat me,' says former Lok Sabha speaker Shivraj Patil.
'If we have 40 seats, we will play a decisive role in the formation of a govt'
'It is logical to assume that the split in the Congress will help the BJP, but it doesn't always work out that way. There is no arithmetic in politics,' feels NCP leader Prafulla Patel.
'Islamabad will come to the negotiating table, you wait and see'
'You know what the sentiments of the people are? They said, for god's sake, for 50 years we've had enough trouble. Now for once, let us get rid of it. We want a final settlement. They are SICK of it.' J&K Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah tells Varsha Bhosle.
'Jayalalitha removed her slipper and showed it to me'
'She abused me. She told me to join the DMK. She says there was no place in the ADMK for me as long as she was there.' Tamaraikani on why he rebelled against Amma.
'After Anna, I admire Vajpayee the most'
'In a way, flattery helps politicians. There is nothing wrong in flattery,' says MDMK general secretary Vaiko.
'The people want to teach the Congress a lesson'
'We are surely going to win about 160 assembly seats. As far as parliamentary elections are concerned, we will repeat our 1996 performance by winning at least 33 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra,' says Gopinath Munde.
'The BJP's vicious campaign against Sonia will backfire'
'Vajpayee cannot understand complex matters. His absorptive capacity is very limited. I have found that his concentration lapses after five minutes. He is no doubt a fine poet, but to run the country you don't need poets, but capable men,' says former Union minister Manmohan Singh.
'How will you survive if you become independent?'
'How are you going to survive with China, Pakistan, India -- three large armies surrounding us? Where are your resources which will give you enough to keep your independence?' J&K Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah tells Varsha Bhosle.
Raising Cain
'The autonomy report is very clear as to what our dimensions of autonomy are. We've said we want it within the Constitution of India. We are not going to ask for anything which is outside the Constitution.' Don't miss the first part of Varsha Bhosle's sensational interview with Dr Farooq Abdullah.
'The issue before the voter is: who is going to be the PM?'
'The main issue would be the suitability of the two candidates, one openly projected and the other somewhat indirectly projected or left to be understood,' says political commentator Cho Ramaswamy.
'Ridiculing a widow does not bring great credit to Hindutva'
'The kind of filth that is being flung around in Bellary is shocking. George Fernandes's campaign is despicable. We too can descend to this, and attack Hegde or Fernandes personally, as they have been attacking Soniaji. We are deliberately holding back from doing that, because otherwise, these polls will become the murkiest in the history of Indian politics,' says Karnataka Congress chief S M Krishna.
'India is the land of Gandhiji and Vinoba Bhave. In such a land, even raising the videshi issue is foolishness'
'We will win well. In 1998 we got 18 seats. We will do better this time.
That's definite,' says Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
'To be frank, people in Bellary do not know that Soniaji is originally from Italy'
'Yes, Bellary has returned 12 Congress MPs since 1952. So isn't it appropriate on our part that to show our gratitude towards the voters here, none other than the Congress president herself should contest from here?' asks K C Kondaiah.
'Our first priority is to ensure that a foreign woman must neither win in India or push our country towards foreign rule again'
BJP leader B S Yediyurappa, widely tipped to be Karnataka's next chief minister, is in a fighting mood.
'Deve Gowda's Janata Dal will disappear after the Lok Sabha elections'
'In politics, abusing is a normal phenomenon. Yes, Patel has abused me and I have abused him. The BJP has also abused Patel. But now we all have come together for a lasting political friendship,' says Ramakrishna Hegde.
'I cannot take orders from every Tom, Dick and Harry'
'The harassment, the torture, the troubles I faced in the last 6,7 months was too much,' says Dalit Ezhimalai, who resigned recently as Vajpayee's health minister.
'I have been the only campaigner in Maharashtra'
'If the NCP, the Janata Dal-Secular and the Samajwadi Party together get 60 seats, it would mean that nobody would get a clear mandate to form the government at the Centre. In such a scenario our 60 seats would be the decisive factor,' says Sharad Pawar.
'Reddy may be willing to join Congress but is Congress willing to accept him?'
'There are a number of issues that would be raised during the campaign. For instance, there is the issue of conversions. Then the rising attacks on Christian minorities and the rising social tensions between various communities.' Disclosures from CPI-M politbureau member Sitaram Yechury.
'This is an election to fight for national pride'
'I will convince the electorate the folly of electing a foreigner as
prime minister. I am so excited that fighting Sonia has become a mission and a cause for me,' says Sushma Swaraj.
'The attack on Sonia's origin is hurting rural women'
In the second and concluding part of his interview, Sunil Dutt dwells on the Congress philosophy, the Sonia effect and the Pawar rebellion.
People speculate, they did not even spare Sita'
'People must know that this man's son was rotting in jail for 15 months. His own party was responsible for putting him in prison, but he still didn't leave the party. He differed from the party but didn't leave it. Party is an ideology. Party is not an individual.' Sunil Dutt explains why he did what he did.
'Our aim is to defeat the BJP government'
'Soon the Congress will be even more isolated and will lose other states too. See what has happened to it. With Sharad Pawar walking out, they will lose Maharashtra too.' Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar shoots wide and far.
'I have been talking with the BJP for almost 10 years now'
'The BJP is all set to sweep the polls. It's a one-horse race this time. No one can stop it. The North has already been conquered and with the DMK and the TDP as allies, the South is also won,' says Arun Nehru.
'To protect Goan identity, Congress is the only viable option'
'The Congress and the BJP are forceful, aggressive and even violent. They are like the Moghul army invading small principalities.' Ramakant Khalap on why he split the MGP.
'My confabulations with Jayalalitha over the past year upset Sasikala'
'Prithviraj Chauhan may have forgiven Mohammad Ghori fifteen times, but I am not going to be so foolish. I will never align with Jayalalitha again. Never!' Dr Subramanian Swamy in pique.
'It was unfortunate that some extremists
equated local Muslims with Pakistan'
'No one seems to know how and why the riots started in Gujarat. As for Kargil, local Muslims were as enthusiastic as the Hindus in denouncing the role of Pakistan,' says Mukesh Patel, president of the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
'Elections in J&K are as important as defending the LoC'
'If elections in the Valley proceed smoothly, then the world opinion will be in your favour,' says Chief Election Commissioner Dr M S Gill.
'I hold Narasimha Rao responsible for allowing Kashmir to slip out of India's hand'
'Gen Sundarji said to change Brasstacks configuration quickly, to south to north, and the forces were pulled back to Bikaner. Then all the MPs were brought to the desert. All military attaches were brought. But I think it was a war, and the PM was not informed.' The concluding part of the interview with Lt General P N Hoon (retd)
'The Pakis were supposed to be one km away from the LoC. They haven't implemented it'
'Let me tell you it is no victory at all. Someone crossed into your territory and your troops are not allowed to cross over. Then, we have given them safe passage! We stopped firing at the enemy for 48 hours so that they could vacate,' says Lt General P N Hoon (retd).
'Kargil campaign is good tonic for the country and army'
'I am more confident now about the Indian armed forces juggernaut. It is moving and is effective,' says army chief General Ved Prakash Malik.
'Sharad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan have become leading vandalites'
'Secularism has been consigned to the fire and Mandalism put into a Kamandal,' says former information minister S Jaipal Reddy.
'Those who are hurt by my not returning the Nishan-e-Imtiaz, I feel sorry for them'
'Kapil Dev's stand is his own stand, let him lead the country from the front. He is a nice person and he was a good captain. I think he would do a very efficient job,' says Dilip Kumar.
'I, Zoramthanga, salute the brave Indian soldiers'
'Not just me but the entire nation should salute the brave officers and jawans of the Indian army who pushed the enemy out of its positions against all odds and, what is more, showed commendable restraint in doing so.' The Mizoram chief minister, the man who struck terror in the army while waging a guerilla war against the Indian State, on the Kargil crisis.
'There is no question of leaving the hills unmanned now, whatever be the cost'
'Pakistan's game plan is clear and simple. They want to occupy key hills from where they can attack our line of communication and disrupt our supply line to Ladakh and Siachen', says Brigadier (retd) Mohinder Singh
'We must take PoK back'
'Pakistan's occupation of Kashmir is against the UN resolution. When Kashmir decided to merge with India, the whole state of Jammu and Kashmir did so. Not a part of it. So we should ask them to vacate the occupied territory of Kashmir. If we haven't done this in the past, then we must do it now,' says Air Commodore (retd) Jasjit Singh.
'Pakistan's future is up in the
air'
'I can well understand why people in India would feel
outraged by current events at the LoC. But for India to
reject Lahore as a result would be
to ensure more Kargils in the future,' says South Asian security expert Dr Michael Krepon.
'This not the first time that a militant has tried to kill me'
'Prior to this arrest militants belonging to the Babbar Khalsa have made four or five such attempts. They keep on finding people who they can brainwash and train to become human bombs,' says former Punjab director general of police, K P S Gill.
'It is a mafia operation where people are afraid to speak out'
'It is incorrect to say that this kind of a mafia operation cannot take place here, that these kind of things only happen in Bihar. If they happen in Bihar, they also happen here.' Maharashtra bureaucrat Arun Bhatia, transferred out yet again for stepping on official toes, lashes out.
'Pakistan does not have the infrastructure to launch a major offensive in Kargil'
'Its supply line starts from Islamabad to Gilgit and goes down to Skardu. It is very lengthy and open to the vagaries of weather. This supply line is vulnerable to Indian air strikes and cannot be sustained for long,' says Major General (retired) Afsir Karim.
'Divide Kashmir, that's the only solution'
'When there are two parties wanting the same thing and neither will agree to go away, what is the solution? Don't say war. That doesn't solve anything. Neither of us have the capacity to sustain a war. We are too dependent on outsiders. Our Master's Voice is outside. So is Pakistan's,' says
Lieutenant General (retd) I S Gill.
'I am appalled the Indian political authorities failed to anticipate the Pakistani onslaught'
'Indian diplomacy, especially in the midst of a crisis, has been characteristically inept. Instead of harping on the infiltration and offering "safe passage" to the guerillas, India should have held a series of high-level press briefings in major capitals of the world. No such effort was undertaken,' says Professor Sumit Ganguly.
'We have to be patient when losses are not unacceptable'
'There will be losses. Because of the terrain, they would have to be losses that we would have to accept. They cannot be too high, given the disadvantageous position from which our troops have to fight this battle,' says Air Marshal (retd) Sadanand Kulkarni.
'Pakistan does not have the guts to get into a direct confrontation with India'
Air Chief Marshal (retd) S K Kaul says Pakistan knows it can't win a full-fledged war with India.
'Pakistan doesn't worry whether it has the benefit of deniability'
Jammu and Kashmir governor and former RAW chief Girish Chandra Saxena on the current border crisis in relation to India's intelligence operations.
'The PM's visit to Pakistan made our people feel a
bit more comfortable'
'It was a failure on our side for not being
vigilant as we should have been,' says the 1971 war hero Lt Gen J S Arora.
'India should have begun the air strikes earlier'
Early retaliation would have reduced the shelling of civilians populations, in India and across the border, says Qamar Ali Akhoon, the guardian minister of Kargil.
'Infiltration is a figment of the Indian army's imagination'
'Without a resolution of the Kashmir dispute, there can be no peace, security and stability in South Asia', says Pakistan's Information Minister Mushahid Hussain.
Back | Earlier Interviews
|
