"Rohingya people should be given citizenship in Myanmar, the country where they were born.. Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same. The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are waiting."
Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Peace Prize winner, on the Rohingya refugee crisis on twitter (September 4)
“There's a BJP machine, 1,000 guys with computers, to abuse me, tell you I'm reluctant, I'm stupid. It's a tremendous machine, all day they spread abuse about me, and the operation is run by the gentleman who is running our country.”
Rahul Gandhi, Congress vice president, at University of California, Berkeley (September 12)
“When we have the capacity to run Metro trains through a tunnel without shaking Connaught Place in Delhi, why can’t we opt for proper technology for maintaining the sewage lines? Why should we send human beings down into the sewage lines, which are 20 feet deep at many places? How can we even think of sending somebody inside? It is criminal.”
Bezwada Wilson, Magsaysay award winner, on why 21st century India has failed to deal with sanitation in a scientific maner (Outlook, September 25)
“The prime minister claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His finance minister is working over-time to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters.”
Yashwant Sinha, former finance minister, on the Indian economy (Indian Express, September 27)
“Freedom of the press isn’t some mincing left-wing luxury, like a Fair-Trade Americano with hot milk. Freedom of the press underpins all freedoms. That freedom is part of your own.”
Bee Rowlatt, well-known author, on press freedom (Times of India, September 28)