A biography for Barkha Dutthasn’t been written yet.
“When Hindustan Motors rolled out the first Ambassador Car in 1957 its sturdy body, rounded contours and Mother Earth simplicity immediately bagged it a place in our collective consciousness.”
“In countries like the U.S., the courts have upheld the right to burn the national flag as a mark of protest or expression. In India, by contrast, we routinely get hysterical if the flag is ever taken out of the boundaries of officialdom.”
“I am not a big fan of politicians turning tragedy into opportunity, but I believe that which politician a victim's family wants to meet is entirely their decision.”
“We must first be able to look honestly at fundamentalism in our own backyard, if we are to have any hope of weeding it out.”
“For the BJP, the conversion of Bengal's cultural Hindu into a political Hindu is a long-standing project.”
“My father, a former Air India official, but essentially an inventor at heart - a man who loved to sometimes break machines just so that he could have the joy of re-engineering them - was a twinkly-eyed, ever-optimistic man of science.”
“For many Indians, their future as global players is linked to the American dream.”
“Patriotism need not be puritanical.”
“There are only a handful of educational institutions that can be called emblems of a Thinking India.”
“Even atheists and agnostics - and I'm an agnostic - can respond with respect to the cultural infiltration of religion into our everyday lives.”
“India's middle-class knows better than most how hard and lonely the struggle of an ordinary man can be.”
“The fact is that a ghastly class prejudice defines our response to the Indian Diaspora.”
“What people, both while voting or while watching television, seek is the same - to know what you stand for and whether you can tell a story that captures their imagination and holds their attention.”
“The working conditions of Indian labourers in the Gulf countries are notoriously abusive.”
“Politics is Darwinian. Individuals will prioritise their future first.”
“Hinduism especially - in the absence of codified rituals or a book of rules to circumscribe it - has always functioned as part philosophy, part mythology, leaving it open to competing and contradictory interpretations.”
“The United States - aspiring India's favourite country - had to learn the hard way that you ignore the world outside your door at great cost to your own survival.”
“There comes a time in the life of every government when the media decide that it has blundered so fatally that a complete recovery is now impossible. In such phases - and every single political party has encountered them - editorials become political obituaries that declare the end.”
“Yes, fear and repression may be permanent citizens in Narendra Modi's Gujarat.”
“You cannot hurl textbook principles of right and wrong in the age of fake news, WhatsApp campaigns and personality-centric cult politics. Elections are not a moral science class.”