“At their intellectual best, Mamata Banerjee and her ilk suffer from a grand delusion that agriculture alone will make marginal farmers significantly better off. It cant. The salvation of rural India lies in more industry and services.” Well-known economist Omkar Goswami in Businessworld (September 15) “Sometimes in India, when the Olympics come, we are not preparing for success, we are preparing for failure. Its a matter of attitude, of thinking, and that needs to change.” Abhinav Bindra, pistol marksman and Olympic gold medal winner, in India Today (September 8) “Mr. Yeddyurappa, we are really hurt and wounded… I am telling you the Blessed Sacrament has been exposed. How will you feel if the garbha gudis (sanctum sanctorums) of temples are destroyed?” Rev. Bernard Moras, archbishop of Bangalore, appealing to Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to stop vandalisation of Christian churches in Bangalore and Mangalore (September 23) “Oprah dresses conservatively. She struggles with her weight. She overcame depression, She rose from poverty and from abuse. On all these levels she appeals to Saudi women. People really idolise her here.” Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud on Oprah Winfrey, the US chat show queen, as a role model for Saudi women (The New York Times, September 19) “Muslims are under siege and a communalised polity and media have made things worse. The demonisation of Muslims and the saffron brigades systematic hate campaign is fuelling this alienation.” Social activist and secularism champion Shabnam Hashmi in Times of India (September 21) “There are disparities in the wages of permanent employees and contract workers. The workers should not be pushed so hard that they resort to whatever has happened in Noida. This should serve as a warning for the managements.” Union labour minister Oscar Fernandes on the murder of L.K. Chaudhury, CEO of Graziano, an Italian multinational company, by a rioting mob of contract workers in Noida (September 23)
