The welfare of the weaker sections of our society has been entrusted to the nation’s collective care by the founding fathers of our polity. Their adv… - R. Venkataraman

The people of India may be poor, many of them may be illiterate, but few societies in the world can match the Indian people in the confidence and maturity with which they exercise their democratic rights.

In a healthy democracy both the ruling party and the opposition have a responsibility to the country and surely the people will judge them in the discharge of that responsibility.

About the Bofors issue: He (Rajiv Gandhi) said that he was quite ready to get all the details regarding payments to Indian nationals, but then Bofors Company did not want to violate commercial secrecy as it would affect its future deals. I told Rajiv, as Deface Minister I knew that all arms manufacturers were employing agents and remunerating them under different names. Therefore, it would be unrealistic to think that foreign arms dealers did not have agents. But utmost care should be taken to see that they did not influence our decisions.