On BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate L.K. Advani:
Can our nation forgive a Home Minister who slept when the terrorists were knocking at the doors of our Parliament? Can our nation forgive a person who single handedly provided the inspiration for the destruction of the Babri Masjid with all the terrible consequences that followed? To atone for his sins, he suddenly decided to visit Pakistan and there he discovered new virtues in Mr. Jinnah. Alas, his own party and his mentors in the RSS disowned him on this issue. Can our nation approve the conduct of a Home Minister who was sleeping while Gujarat was burning leading to the loss of thousands of innocent lives?
Petty — yes petty — issues are the biggest road-block for India’s progress. How then do these issues manage to hamper the growth of a country so large and so populous? Well it’s because unlike those caused by care–free children, these can’t be put to rest or ridiculed since these are caused by old, narrow and conservative folk such as Shri L.K. Advani who people might (by not voting) appoint as our next Prime Minister.
On the proposed Indo–US Nuclear deal:
We have large reserves of coal but even these are inadequate to meet all our needs by 2050. But more use of coal will have an adverse impact on pollution and climate. We can develop hydro-power and we must. But many of these projects hurt the environment and displace large number of people. We must develop renewable sources of energy particularly solar energy. But we must also make full use of atomic energy which is a clean environment friendly source of energy. All over the world, there is growing realization of the importance of atomic energy to meet the challenge of energy security and climate change.
Why is it that when something good can happen, we hear war cries but when something bad happens, all we see are turned backs?