"Arvind Kejriwal has no answer for how they’ll find honest candidates."
Social activist Anna Hazare (India Today, November 5)
"The success of the 16th President teaches that hard times are precisely when political dexterity is needed most. Politics is the machinery by which we meet tough challenges. Lincoln drilled this idea into his closest aides…"
David Von Drehle on what former US president Abraham Lincoln can teach the Presidential hopefuls of 2012 (Time, November 5)
"Thackeray mined gold in these sewers (of disaffection) — building a politics that gave voice to the rage of educated young men without prospects, and offering violence as liberation. It mattered little to the rank and file Shiv Sena cadre precisely who the targets of their rage were: south Indian and Gujarati small-business owners; Left-wing trade union activists; Muslims; north Indian economic migrants."
Praveen Swamy on the late Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray (The Hindu, November 20)
"What really ails the world’s largest democracy, and what has caused it to lose its footing at this crucial moment in its development, is that its oldest party, its ruling party, the party that invented dynastic democracy, the Congress party, has found in the person of Rahul Gandhi, an abysmal mediocrity for an heir."
Author Aatish Taseer in ‘Rahul Gandhi: The tale of a failed crown prince’ (Deccan Herald, November 27)
"For the past one decade, Modi’s politics has apparently spawned a cult which is distinctly different from the rest of India. Though he is 62, he is adored by the youth who regard him as an icon."
Ajay Singh on the forthcoming Gujarat 2012 elections (GovernanceNow, November 16-30)
"Teachers can now earn up to $12,000 in annual bonuses; $5,000 for achieving good results, up to $5,000 for working in poorly performing schools, and up to $2,500 for teaching a hard-to-staff subject."
The Economist on a new contract for teachers in Newark, New Jersey, USA (November 24-30)