2012: Ideas expressed

'The BJP's ideology is to obstruct. Give me one session of Parliament since 2009 where they have not obstructed'

Minister for Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal

'Kejriwal's tactics of sitting outside peoples' homes, abusing everybody, this will pull down our democracy'

BJP president Nitin Gadkari

'We are not the HR manager for the BJP. Everyone has to run their own organisation'

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat

'I have never castigated politicians or called them useless'

Social activist Anna Hazare

'It is always the government's temptation to keep nibbling away at the EC's powers'

Former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi who retired in June 2012

'To say we are becoming regressive because we opposed FDI in one sector is not fair judgment'

BJP leader Yashwant Sinha

'There is a problem in demanding far too much freedom for our institutions. How do you establish their accountability?'

Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra on giving institutional status to bodies like CAG

'I am looking forward to changing the colour of my medal in Rio'

Silver medallist at the 2012 London Olympics shooter Gagan Narang

'I will be acquitted long before the assembly elections are held'

Virbhadra Singh, now Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, on corruption charges. He was acquitted of these charges a day before he became Chief Minister

'I will go to hell and back to bring democracy back to Maldives'

Former president of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed

'By instinct I am a liberal, by training a lawyer so instinctively I would always lean towards self-regulation'

Minister of State for I&B (Independent charge) Manish Tewari on regulating the media

'The diesel price hike is a good move (but) it is not a reform'

Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission

'The strength of this government is not its performance, but its ability to manipulate the political class'

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley

'Ambedkar is too great a man and his contribution is recognised. How is his reputation going to be lowered by a textbook cartoon?'

Director General, National Archives, Prof Mushirul Hasan

'Our party's analysis on UP proved wrong. We never expected such a low number of seats'

Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal

'If there is a cooling period of two years post-retirement, no judge would take up these jobs. Who would be bothered?'

NHRC chairman and former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan on judges being appointed to government posts after retirement

'We know the situation in Bihar. BJP is both an asset and a liability'

JD(U) president Sharad Yadav on the coalition government in Bihar

'Iran must know that there is a very high price tag attached to its military nuclear ambitions'

Israeli ambassador Alon Ushpiz

'BJP should groom young leaders now or it will be difficult in the next 5-10 years'

Goa BJP Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar

'SP does not want mid-term polls but no one knows what the Congress's partners will do next'

Samajwadi Party leader Ram Gopal Yadav

'Activists keep arguing that it takes too long to prove a man guilty. But is that fair grounds to reject the rule of law in favour of kangaroo trials?'

Minister of Law and Justice, Ashwani Kumar

'I consider Anna Hazare my dear friend and a senior. No one is ahead of the other. We are together on this revolutionary path'

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev

'CAG has a culture of suspecting everything. A mindset change has to happen'

Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Veerappa Moily

'I will not be happy if I score 30 hundreds and never help India win a series overseas'

Indian cricketer Gautam Gambhir

'Even after all the reforms, there is too much government, too much interference and too much corruption'

Joint MD of Hero MotoCorp Sunil Munjal

ALSO READ

National Interest: BJP's troubled House

No yuan for growth

China's rebalancing act

The Karnataka prophecies