“Weaponisng of Punjab has happened in the past. But the quantum of weapons that is coming in now is certainly disturbing,” @capt_amarinder tells @ShekharGupta in #ThePrintOTC
“When it comes to national security, when it comes to securing Punjab, we are beyond political parties. It is the question of giving security to our people. India comes first. Other things come later,” @capt_amarinder tells @ShekharGupta in #ThePrintOTC
“The farmers' agitation has to end on an understanding. Any complication has to reach the negotiating table. Farmers don’t want any politicians to get involved, they have made that absolutely clear,” @capt_amarinder tells @ShekharGupta in #ThePrintOTC
“It’s been a good life and I hope I have some usefulness left in me for my state. I have always wanted to be in Punjab from the day I was elected. Whatever productive years I have left, I want to give to my state,” @capt_amarinder tells @ShekharGupta in #ThePrintOTC
“I don’t believe the fellow was committing any sacrilege...he could have been under intoxication,” says @capt_amarinder on the killing of a Dalit man in Lakhimpur Kheri over allegations of sacrilege, in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC
“The worst part was no one took him for treatment, the police was watching. These are absurd things happening in our country,” says @capt_amarinder on the killing of a Dalit man in Lakhimpur Kheri over allegations of sacrilege, in conversation with @ShekharGupta at #ThePrintOTC
“Everyone has a sense of being let down. I have done everything in my power, and I do not want to go out as a failure. Pushing me out in this ignoble way amounts to putting me to pasture. I am not ready to go to pasture," @capt_amarinder tells @ShekharGupta in #ThePrintOTC
“I would like a seat sharing arrangement with BJP, with breakaway factions of Akali Dal, and with farmer groups. If we can form this foursome, we will win,” @capt_amarinder tells @ShekharGupta in #ThePrintOTC
@vikramsampath@ShekharGupta "Western historians tell us Aurangzeb was a peace loving individual & protected more temples than he destroyed. This leads to a backlash from people who don't know how to respond intellectually so their responses get violent," @vikramsampath to @ShekharGupta in #ThePrintOTC
@vikramsampath@ShekharGupta “Savarkar has hardly been academically analysed or studied. I am amazed by the singular lack of academic interest in him among historians, his political opponents or proponents," says @vikramsampath, author of 'Savarkar: A Contested Legacy', at #ThePrintOTC
@vikramsampath@ShekharGupta “Post independence only one shade of ideological history — Marxist historiography — has ruled the roost. It ensured that anyone writing anything different was cancelled," historian and author @vikramsampath tells @ShekharGupta in #ThePrintOTC.
Mainstream media led by two small group of virologists dismissed lab leak as a conspiracy; they were caught up in ideological struggles. Trump’s intervention was extremely unhelpful in polarising the issue: Nicholas Wade, author and journalist, tells @ShekharGupta#ThePrintOTC
There are 2 theories-that it came naturally from animals, that it leaked from a lab. Both are hypotheses, there is no conclusion for either. Existing evidence is explained better by lab leak. Lab leak does not mean biowarfare: Wade sums up his argument #ThePrintOTC
Gain of function sounds mild but involves creating a dangerous virus that didn’t exist before. There’s been considerable debate abt it. It’s tempting tech that gives a sense of power, there are all kinds of reasons for virologists to monkey around with viruses: Wade #ThePrintOTC