Quotable Quotes

If my first cousin is a burglar, does that make me one?”
— Jaswant Singh, former defence minister on Choppergate

“The Philippines must be half empty — you’re all here running the NHS.”
— Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, to a Filipino nurse during a visit to the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital

“ …but I had only invited 15,000 people, whereas lakhs of guests, ranging from politicians to ordinary citizens, turned up. A lot of the guests who had come to give their blessings went without food.”
—Bhaskar Jadhav, Maharashtra’s urban development minister, after an I-T department raid at his home over the lavish wedding of his children

‘‘This is not a Rail Budget, this is a Rae Bareli budget.’’
­— Gopinath Munde, BJP deputy leader, in the Lok Sabha

“We don’t target the government, they give us an opportunity to target them.”
— Arun Jaitley, leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, on the AgustaWestland chopper deal controversy

‘‘...it seemed the Lord was sleeping.’’
­— Benedict XVI, the retired pope, on trying times in his papacy, in his final address

“...good intentions don’t necessarily make good law.”
— Kapil Sibal, communications & IT minister, on whether the courts were interferring with the executive and the legislature’s role, in an interview

“People think the grey (in Barack Obama’s hair) is from his job. It’s from his children.”
— Michelle Obama, the US first lady, in an interview to ABC News

“If any family feels that electricity bill is out of their income (limit) and can’t bear it, then use one bulb instead of two.”
­— Sheila Dikshit, Delhi chief minister, at a political rally in Delhi

(This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 25-03-2013)