Subramanian Swamy

“Putin should prove that he wants to be our friend by declassifying files of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Lal Bahadur Shastri.”

“Rahul Gandhi cannot be a prime minister because he is a citizen of Britain, and his Indian citizenship will be cancelled; he won't even be an MP.”

“National identity does not figure in the Tamil way of thinking.”

“We Hindus have a long-recognised tradition of being religious liberals by nature.”

“The Aadhar data that was leaked to American companies was, in a way, a betrayal to the country.”

“Auctioning of natural resources such as spectrum, coal, oilfields, and land for commercial exploitation can largely substitute for tax impositions.”

“The truth is truth. I have never made a charge in my political career of 30 years where I have been disapproved. No defamation case has succeeded against me.”

“The effect of the foreign direct investment of Etihad in Jet Airways and the implied bilateral agreement of air services between India and the UAE has primarily damaged Air India, which is a government-owned airline with huge assets that are extremely valuable.”

“Jayalalithaa was brutalised from the age of 16 in the cinema world. She therefore bears a psychotic pleasure in humiliating people as she was humiliated. She was deadened to normal human emotions.”

“This much I would say: Socialism has failed all over the world. In the eighties, I would hear every day that there is no inflation in the Soviet Union, there is no poverty in the Soviet Union, there is no unemployment in the Soviet Union. And now we find that, due to Socialism, there is no Soviet Union!”

“Black money is a cancer in our economic system, not yet terminal or life-threatening.”

“I know many judges who are homosexual.”

“The problem with our country is that we don't ask for equality in treatment. They want free flow of capital into our country. Why do they not allow free flow of labour into their country? Tell me what is the reason why they don't allow people to migrate to the United States as and when they like?”

“Twenty years ago, when I spoke about women getting harassed by politicians, people said I was getting personal. Today, the climate has changed. It has become an epidemic. It's happening in every place.”

“For decades, the Congress party has used its power to make Nehru appear as a giant, rendering all other political personalities small before him.”

“With proper infrastructure and packaging, India can certainly become a global player in agricultural exports.”

“The Kargil war will be an issue that will hurt the BJP.”

“The younger generation has become very nationalistic, self-confident. Increasingly, they do not see the Congress as their party.”

“Madurai is a city with a long political history. It was at the centre of the anti-Brahmin movement, the anti-Hindi movement, the Dravidian movement, and was a pro-LTTE city. Yet, this city has elected me, the very antithesis of all these movements.”

“I am not interested in state politics.”