The power to question is the basis of all human progress.

Now I don't get upset by unpleasant things, I don't play the victim, and I'm always ready to come to terms with life.

Naturally, if the Americans had fired a shot, if the Seventh Fleet had done something more than sit there in the Bay of Bengal...yes, the Third World War would have exploded. But, in all honesty, not even that fear occurred to me.

In fact the communists gained strength in India when the people thought my party was moving to the right. And they were correct.

I want to state that there will be friendship between Bangladesh and ourselves. And not a one-sided friendship, of course - no one does anything for nothing; each has something to give and something to take.

All of a sudden inscriptions appeared on walls. Signs appeared. And that 'no' exploded all over India, in an act of pride that surprised even me. Then even the political parties, all of them, even the deputies in Parliament, said no: it's better to die of hunger than be taken for a nation of beggars.

Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance.