How India fared in 2009

Before you forget it all and drown in celebrations for 2010, take a look at what all happened in 2009.

Smita Mishra & Shashank Chouhan

Rahul Gandhi addressing the press after Congress re-emerged in UP, Arun Shourie spewing venom against BJP leadership, a shoe-being hurled at the new (and improved) Home Minister being targeted by shoe, China written on a boulder on the Indian side of the border etc., are some vivid images that are stuck in mind as 2009 comes to an end. But these are not all. A quick look at the key events in India in 2009: Manmohan’s magic Verdict 2009 was for stability, positivity and development. It rejected cynicism, negative campaigning and old approach to politics. This was all too evident as the Congress led-United Progressive Alliance (UPA) romped home with 262 seats- a full 45 seats more from the stunning result of 2004. As Manmohan Singh became the only Prime Minister to retain his seat for the second consecutive term, it was clear that the divisive politics of the Right and the outdated ideas of the Left were not in-tune with India of the 21st century. BJP’s fortunes dipped by 25 seats, while the CPI(M) suffered its worst showing since when it first fought the Lok Sabha polls in 1967 when it won 19 seats- this time it was 16 seats and a drubbing in West Bengal and Kerala. Having won a clear mandate, all hopes are now set on the UPA government for it to meet the aspirations of the youth, who seem to have tilted the result in its favour. Rise of Rahul Gandhi He turned down a cabinet post; he refused to admit that he is PM in waiting; he consciously stayed away from image slandering politics, wittily and smilingly accepting all barbs from opposition. He did not marry this year as well; but won hearts by tirelessly crisscrossing this great land and spending nights in sleepy villages and small towns, interacting with farmers and students. He has, in short, become the undisputed face of the Congress party in 2009. Whether Rahul was just his humble self or played his cards innovatively or simply followed Mahatma Gandhi’s technique of building a mass base is difficult to determine, but he surely resurrected the Congress from the era of facelessness. His straight talk with the country’s youth had an appealing impact and contributed in infusing a new zeal in the party which had missed youthful leadership for quite some time now. Rahul helped in reinvigorating Congress’s fortunes UP from a meager 10 seats of 2004 to double the number this year, and gave many sleepless nights to Chief Minister Mayawati and, partner at Centre, Samajwadi Party, who saw their Dalit or Muslim vote bank dwindling before the rising Rahul euphoria. Party with differences While 2009 turned out to be a year, when people voted for stability, it was also a year when they didn’t really have any alternatives to choose from. And even after elections, the BJP-led Opposition at the Centre is in a mess. Before the elections, it couldn’t project any issue of consequence. Instead, its effete leadership made one man and his dream of being the PM its central agenda. What followed was a slugfest between LK Advani and Manmohan Singh- we eventually realized Dr Singh could speak sharp if required. As its US Presidential style campaign failed miserably, the lotus wilted and seemed to have gone on a self-destruction spree. Beginning with trading barbs over who was responsible for its Lok Sabha defeat- Advani didn’t own up though offered to resign as Opposition leader and Rajnath Singh made small apologetic noises- a clear divide emerged between the old & the new, the Sanghis and the moderates, Advani’s and Rajnath’s. Jaswant Singh was purged for favouring Jinnah and exposing the party’s hardline face. Arun Shourie was sidelined for leading a public attack on BJP’s top leaders and their ‘Alice in Blunderland’-esque approach. It bowed before regional factions in Karnataka to keep the first saffron fort in southern India. The final word was probably uttered by the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who said ‘old leaders should go quickly’, ‘BJP needs a surgery’ etc, indicating that the Parivar had cracked its whip. Internal challenges have till now prevented the BJP from getting its act together and act like a responsible Opposition. Left alone Once vanquished, one is always left alone to lick wounds. The Left front in India cut such a sorry picture for itself that its isolation has only grown, with cracks within making matters worse. Failing to connect with its traditional base in West Bengal and Kerala, the CPI(M) led Left parties won a meager 16 seats in Lok Sabha elections, despite being at the helm of the so called Third Front, which has drowned in electoral wave after wave. Even in the subsequent panchayat and assembly bypolls, not only was there no Third Front, the fall of Left became so prominent that its leaders were forced to admit that they had lost the grassroot support due to losing cadre to Trinamool Congress, a party that had only one MP in the last Lok Sabha and now has 20, with its supremo Mamata Banerjee as the Railways Minister. That the bhadralok have left the apparatchiks of AKG Bhavan and so have the industrialists with whom Buddhadeb founded a special relationship. CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc have openly opposed the use of force against Maoists in the state and have lambasted CPI(M) for playing Big Brother to the hilt. Is this the end of the Marxists, then? 2011 shall tell. Chidambaram Vs Terror The year began with serious questions over India’s security and intelligence set-up, what with the horrendous attacks in Mumbai exposing chinks in our armour. As a fashion-conscious Shivraj Singh bowed out of the Home Ministry, the no-nonsense P Chidambaram walked into complete mess, but hit the ground running. The minister set about the task of getting to introduce the word ‘coordination’ between various intelligence agencies as reports indicated that a file, which was not passed on to the higher-ups led to the massive failure of 26/11. He has also sought to increase the number of policemen, has created NSG hubs in four metros and has announced that one will be set up in every state, went to the US to get tips on how they worked things out post 9/11, has made it a habit to bring in transparency etc. The result is that apart from Assam and Manipur, the year 2009 was terror free with a lot of plot foiled, suspects arrested and explosives seized. Chidambaram, along with the PM, has also decided to pursue a firm policy vis-à-vis the Naxals. He is at the helm of a massive operation being planned to vacate the areas captured by the red rebels. Nuclear Sub-club After 30 years of secrecy, this black beauty was released into the Bay of Bengal waters by PM Manmohan Singh in July this year. India joined the select group of five nations to have its own nuclear propelled and nuclear armed submarine called Arihant. Code-named Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV), the submarine is a project conceived in the 70s and initiated by Indira Gandhi in the 80s. As Vice Admiral (Retd) MK Roy, the first chief of Arihant- as the submarine is called- told us, this is the biggest and best possible platform that India has got to defend itself. It is India’s best second strike weapon in case of a nuclear war. With China reportedly having 10 of these sea war horses and upping the ante on the Northeast border, India has taken a firm step in the right direction, after much delay. Other defence developments:

Two Prithvi-II surface-to-surface missiles with 350kms of range and capable of carrying over 500kgs of nuclear warhead successfully tested in October

Ballistic Missile Defence shield’s third successful trial in March

First nighttime test of the Agni II missile didn’t meet objectives

In Nov, People Daily of China carried a report that India’s yet-to-be-made Agni V will be able to hit Harbin

Two Sukhois crashed. The first one was blamed on human error in which the pilot lost his life. After the second crash, the newly acquired aircraft were grounded till further orders.

India gave farewell to the last ageing MiG 23-BN after three decades of service Chinese checkers 2009 will probably go down in history as a year where bilateral relations between India and China hit one of the worst patches since 1986. While the Asian powerhouses joined rank on international issues like climate change, on the home front the story was quite different. In June grazers near the Line of Actual Control reported that Chinese helicopters had flown on the Indian side and dropped packets of expired food. In September, incursions were reported from the Chumar sector in east of Leh where Chinese troops had painted "China" in Cantonese with Red spray paint all over the boulders and rocks. Then came report that the Chinese were stapling visa of Kashmiris separately and not on the Indian passport. In November the National Remote Sensing Agency provided images that suggested construction of a dam on the Chinese side of Brahmputra river. There was a furor over the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh which the Chinese said was organized by the Government of India. Days before, the high voter turnout of over 80% was a thumping reply by the people to Chinese claims on Arunachal Pradesh. Months ago, China tried to block Asian Development Bank’s USD 60 mn loan to the state, but was thwarted by Indian diplomacy. It even objected to the construction of a road near the border in Ladakh this month. What’s more, a Chinese analyst commented in the Chinese official newspapers that his country should work at breaking-up the ‘so-called’ Indian nation into smaller parts. India’s response has been guarded and inadequate on the political level. While SM Krishna has maintained that there is nothing alarming, the Indian Army decided to deploy 15,000 more troops, light tanks and held an exercise on the border as a confidence building measure among the people. The IAF operationalised the Nyoma airstrip which is located at an altitude of 13,300 feet in Leh to help Army in the inhospitable conditions on the India-China border. The PM also raised concerns during talks with Wen Jiabao, amply understanding that the countries need to encourage their over USD 50bn trade ties instead. Gay pride right Finally the state will not have any problem if a man wants to kiss a man. Putting an end to a long, humiliating and arduous battle for gay rights, the Delhi HC this year struck down the provision of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalised consensual sexual acts of adults in private, holding that it violated the fundamental right of life and liberty. Even the government, after much deliberation and internal discord, decided not to oppose the order in Supreme Court. While law, in keeping with the Constitution of India, has decided to recognise the will of consenting adults, serious challenge has been posed by the society and especially those claiming to speak for their religion. From Baba Ramdev- who indulged in slugfests with Celina Jaitely and Sambhavna Seth- to maulanas and priests, supposed keepers of culture, closed ranks against homosexuality with ridiculous reasons like ‘it is a curable disease’ to ‘God doesn’t approve of it’. That is a longer war, but for now the LGBTs are raising toast to small mercies. Corruption on top The year saw the unearthing of one of the biggest scams. Madhu Koda, Jharkhand’s ex-CM was accused of amassing assets worth Rs 4000 crores, nearly a fifth of the annual budget of Jharkhand! The rise of Koda was meteoric and so was his fall. Coming from the humble backgrounds of being a mining labourer and welder, Koda’s success would have been a story to imitate, but he chose a path that took him to jail. Telecom Minister A Raja has been accused of a scam worth Rs 60,000 cr in auctioning of 2G spectrum. The CBI even raided his ministry and the probe is on in the matter. It would not have shocked us 20 years ago when corruption was seen as a synonym of Indian politics. But at a time when country’s top portfolios (Defence, Finance, Home, PMship) are held by men with high personal and moral integrity, it left us wondering whether honesty is still the keep of just a handful of our leaders? Scary Swine Flu If terror spared India in 2009, a pandemic created tumult. Swine Flu was the year’s largest scare. The country which returns to normalcy just a few hours after a militant attack remained paralyzed and traumatized due to the flu pandemic that spelled havoc in the months of August and September. Crowded hospitals and test labs, masked men, women and children, closure of educational institutions and offices, rapidly spreading disease and a confused Health Minister grabbed the headlines every day. While Pune was the worst hit, Swine Flu did not spare any corner of the country. The toll from the disease has crossed 500, and it is still very much in the air, but the panic has died down and some credit for it can surely go to the Health Ministry till the H1N1 virus reinvents itself and proves us wrong…God forbid! Education Revamp Kapil Sibal has proved to be a breath of fresh air after his ministry’s previous incumbents, who indulged in their own agendas, simply ignored the immense potential of India’s human resource. Sibal has embarked on an ambitious over-haul of the basic and advanced education system in India- from scrapping Class X boards to making education a right for all, the minister has recognized the importance of empowering through education, rather than reservation. He has also put the Foreign University Bill on fast track though that has invited some criticism, as it would benefit the well-off. Higher education has been freed from government shackles with the IIMs going ahead with their online exams and the minister not interfering even when it failed. It has left thousands of MBA aspirants in a lurch, but with an institution like IIM, one can hope of things getting better soon. Racial Attacks against Indians By the middle of this year, horror stories of Indians being targeted in Australia began appearing in the media. We saw a group of thugs assaulting an Indian in a metro and dismissed it as just another crime. But it didn’t stop. At least 30 people of Indian origin, most of them students, were attacked Down Under till October. With widespread public outcry in India and the matter moving to Parliament, Australian ministers, including the PM Kevin Rudd- afraid of losing over two billion dollars that 90,000 Indian students generate - made a beeline before various central ministers and conveyed that they believed in ‘zero-tolerance’ vis-à-vis racialism. It even brought in a legislation requiring education providers to re-register. The entire episode affected those planning to move abroad for studies, but the fears seem to have been quelled for now. India and the World The emerging power that it is, India’s engagement with rest of the world is a matter of great attention. Here is a short summary of India’s ties with the world in 2009: US: PM Manmohan Singh earned a rare honour when the US’ first Black President invited him as his first state guest. Though India-US did not sign on the dotted line of the civil nuclear deal, the agreements and bonhomie between Singh and Obama was a breather to an India nervous about the new administration in the world’s still only superpower. Russia: Following up his Washington visit with a high-powered meeting with President Dimitry Medvedev in Moscow, India showed its old friend that it hadn’t forgotten Russia. The two countries signed a nuclear deal which is much better than the US deal and extended defence cooperation for another decade in various areas. An unsigned Gorshkov deal, however, made Vodka a bit sour. France: After Nicolas Sarkozy having become the President, India and France have come closer. It was most evident when Dr Manmohan Singh was invited as the chief guest at France’s glittering National Day parade, a first-time honour bestowed on any head of the state. Not just that, a contingent of Indian soldiers marched briskly down the Champs-Elysees to the tune of Saare Jahan Se Acha. To top it, the Indo-French civil nuclear agreement was ratified by the French Parliament. Pakistan: Engagement with Pakistan was minimum and disastrous. The two sides agreed to meet for the first time after the dreaded Mumbai attacks in Yekaterinburg on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, where Zardari was caught off-guard as Manmohan Singh bluntly and in full media glare told him that Pakistan’s territory shouldn’t be used against India. At Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt a month later, though, it was advantage Pakistan, as the joint statement released after Singh-Yousuf Gilani meet mentioned Balochistan and unconditional talks. That led to an uproar back home which forced the Government to deny any ceding of ground to Pakistan. Demands and counter demands as well dossier diplomacy over 26/11 carried on throughout the year, not to India’s satisfaction though. Nepal: Some deft diplomacy on India’s part helped Nepal through yet another crisis befallen on the newly formed republic. Forced to vacate PM’s office due to a spat with Army chief which threw the political differences between the Maoists and the others in a sharp contrast, Pushpa Kamal alias Prachanda raised finger at India though later retracted the same. Sri Lanka: As the long and tortuous Tamil war came to a violent end, India found itself struggling to take a side. Elections came to the rescue and the leadership spoke minimum, though the leaders of South, especially Tamil Nadu, got loud on their pro-Tamil demands. India, however, extended all cooperation to Sri Lankan government in achieving its goals and at the same time asked for better treatment of the minority Tamils. PM Manmohan Singh also shared the high table at the BRIC and SCO meets in Russia. He also wracked his brains with advanced countries in a G8-G5 summit in Italy, apart from being there at the G20 meet in Pittsburgh and the NAM summit in Egypt. The PM also attended the India-ASEAN meet, as well as the East Asia summit in Thailand. And also…

The CBI, after years of struggle, finally decided to close the Quattarochi case in Bofors scam, as it could not provide the courts with any incriminating evidence. Howls of disbelief from an Opposition fell on deaf ears.

After 17 years, Justice Liberhan finally gave his report to the PM on the destruction of Babri. Its ‘leak’ to media and the subsequent tabling of an Action Taken Report as well the report itself by the government opened a can of worms for all concerned. Most shocking revelation was the indictment of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Some scientists related to the DRDO expressed doubts over India’s nuclear bomb. It was dismissed by the then men in power as well as by the current government.

A flurry of demands for smaller states followed the in-principal approval for Telangana state by the Centre after K Chandrasekhar Rao’s 11 day fast. This was the second major political turmoil after the death of CM YS Reddy.

Purportedly in the presence of Home Minister P Chidambaram, though denied by the man himself, the Jamiat-Ulema-e Hind passed a resolution denounced the singing Vandemataram as anti-Islamic. It was met by much uproar and condemnation from all communities including Muslims.