War Room Quotes

“Its catchy headlines were sheer propaganda, reminiscent of those run by the Communist mouthpieces of erstwhile East Germany.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“Renowned philosopher and Chicago University professor Martha C. Nussbaum told me in an interview after Modi’s 2012 victory, his third as Gujarat chief minister, that his triumph was a blot on the people of Gujarat who chose to “re-elect an outlaw”.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“which argued how, against conventional wisdom, traditional faith had gained greater traction in globalised India and a “state-temple-corporate complex” wielded decisive political and economic power.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“he gave legitimacy to religiosity in a society dominated by secular discourse and, in the process, weakened caste as the single-most important factor that pulled in votes.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“his success could be attributed to “making Hindutva into a public and national phenomenon rather than the product of secret societies, as it had been in the past”.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“Incidentally, Modi also attracted immense interest from overseas groups led by industrialists as big as French-Iranian billionaire Pierre Morad Omidyar, who founded eBay. He is rumoured to have funded Modi’s elections. Jayant Sinha, a former Omidyar Network partner, is now a junior minister in the Modi government.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“Remember, too, that the father of the nation was himself a diasporic Indian, so this history goes back a long way. And yet, unlike Pakistan, whose entire elite and governing class is part of an expatriate population (at least intermittently; the current governor of Punjab in Pakistan, Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar, for instance, came from Scotland, like one of his colonial predecessors), the Indian diaspora is not (yet) in a position to determine or control the country’s future or even present in any serious way.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“NREGA marega”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“it. In other words, 95 percent of workers in construction sector hardly have any kind of social security coverage,” the study added, and warned that a “daunting and complicated task confronting the policymakers is to address the issue of informal employment within the organised sector. This issue of informalisation of employment poses a serious challenge in achieving decent work and thereby achieving more inclusive growth and sustainable development”.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“But in hindsight, 2011 marked the entry of pros in India’s campaign scene like never before, as political entrepreneurship began to gain momentum.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“I am a human being first and a citizen of my country second”.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“The “foreign hand” was Avaaz.org, an organisation that promotes pro-democracy movements through the Internet, social media, phones and sometimes with the help of citizen journalists. Avaaz was co-founded in 2007 by Res Publica, a global civic advocacy group, and Moveon.org, an online community for Internet advocacy in the US. The founding team had social entrepreneurs from six countries, including president and executive director Ricken Patel, Tom Perriello, Tom Pravda, Eli Pariser, Andrea Woodhouse, Jeremy Heimans, and David Madden. By 2011, Avaaz had run a total of 750 pro-democracy campaigns worldwide. Widely regarded as the largest global political web movement in history, Avaaz’s website is blocked in China and Iran.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“I asked a senior IAC leader, “Who manages your social media sites and bulk texting?” “We have some teams helping us,” he replied, without elaborating. Later, a Congress leader complained bitterly to me that a “foreign hand” was involved.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“In June 1975, it was the venue for Jayaprakash Narayan’s one lakh-strong rally that rattled then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who shortly imposed Emergency rule.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“It was eventually remembered by Kashmiris as the moment when various militant factions came together against the state – unity of an unintended kind.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“I think I would like a more secular person to be prime minister. I would not like a prime minister who generates concern and fear on the part of minorities. That is the primary reason,” he told me.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“There were gaps in MoUs getting materialised, but he sold them the idea very well nonetheless,” an official who worked closely with Modi told me.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“Raghavan was among the three police officers to have been indicted by the Verma Commission for security lapses leading to the assassination.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“Bhatt said, “He (Modi) had given us three days… to do whatever we could. He said he would not give us time after that… He said this openly… After three days, he asked us to stop and everything came to a halt…”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“It is no secret that many Congress workers also took part in the 2002 riots in Ahmedabad, hacking helpless Muslims to death.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“Never one to plot revenge in the conventional way, Modi bade his time before he could get back at Joshi.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“He won’t even offer tea to someone without a reason –”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“They have been fed various heroic tales of the BJP heavyweight dating back to his childhood ever since he became Gujarat’s chief minister some thirteen years ago. Some of these tales have become part of Modi mythology, such as the story of the teenaged Narendra’s escape from the jaws of a crocodile in the nearby Sharmishtha Lake, which is fed by water from the river Kapila known to nourish the earliest settlement in this region. The story of Modi’s escape from a crocodile echoes the childhood experience of Jagatguru Adi Shankaracharya, the great Hindu seer who lived and died in Varanasi.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“something that author Christophe Jaffrelot had called “the reactivation of a Hindu sentiment of vulnerability”.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“there was a rumour that the only bearded man safe in Gujarat was then Chief Minister Modi whose police officers were not seen anywhere in the initial days after the Godhra incident as the mayhem spread rapidly.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“Amidst all the chaos, one memory stands out. A ten-year-old boy in the upper-class Hindu-dominated neighbourhood where we were staying was taken on a tour of the city by his father, mainly to parts where Muslims were being hunted down by mobs. The idea of this “riots tourism” was to make a man out of this boy, and, as his mother explained to us, to prepare him to withstand any kind of “frightening sights”. There was something eerily Ku Klux Klannish about that behaviour, I thought.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“Now he is in awe of the Mahatma, and nobody else matters.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“primary vehicle for Modi’s NRI propaganda. Modi also made him the director of Gujarat Informatics Limited around 2011 and it was ever since then that Rajesh Jain has been spawning website after website for promoting the political fortunes of Modi.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“That database of numbers, which was in IAC’s custody, comprising people across all walks of life, including taxi drivers and janitors and washerwomen, was collected using a software developed by Netcore which could also track down data on the caller’s geographical location and other details.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win

“These rallies created frenzy in many parts of the country where people thronged to take in Modi appearing as if in an epiphany. “It was technology, but people thought there was more to it than technology. If it was just technology then why weren’t Rahul or Sonia or Mulayam Singh Yadav appearing out of the blue? people asked.”
― Ullekh NP, War Room: The People, Tactics and Technology behind Narendra Modi's 2014 Win