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It’s been a good year, arguably the best since we became an independent
nation. We have never been as well off as we are today. There is more
in our kitty. We are earning more and spending more. Our rate of development
is faster than before — over 9 per cent. Our Sensex has broken
all previous records. We had less internal turbulence than the previous
years. Our relations with our immediate neighbours, Pakistan, China
and Bangladesh have never been as tension-free as they are today;
nor have our relations with the world’s greatest superpower,
the United States been friendlier: they have opened up new vistas
for India as a nuclear power.
What is also worth keeping in mind is that our faith in our judiciary
was restored as the courts convicted many rich and powerful criminals
who had evaded justice for many years. We await the verdict on men
and women who abetted the destruction of Babri Masjid.
Not to be overlooked is our film industry: Bollywood retains its
first place as the world’s leading film producer and every
Indian, including people like myself who never see movies, look
forward to the burgeoning romance between Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh
and Jaya Bachchan’s son, Abhishek come to a happy conclusion.
Not many believed that the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh-led coalition
would be able to withstand the onslaught of the Opposition BJP and
other parties as well as defeat mischief-makers among their own
allies. Whether we like it or not, the Congress party is held together
by one family of three members: Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and
daughter Priyanka. People look at them as the inheritors of the
legacy by Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Maulana Azad and others.
Without Sonia and her children there would be nothing left of the
Congress party because its cadre of supporters is indisciplined
and weak.
Manmohan Singh is Sonia’s choice as Prime Minister; she could
not have chosen a better man: ability, experience and honesty all
in one. Despite the constraints placed on him as the head of a coalition
government, he has delivered. He may not be able to win a municipal
by-election, but if there was an all-India poll to elect a Prime
Minister, he will emerge as the outright winner.
The year started with Rajnath Singh replacing L.K. Advani as the
head of the BJP, a move welcomed by the RSS and the majority of
its members. Then, a terrible tragedy took place during the Haj
pilgrimage in which 368 people were killed. The same month, Buta
Singh was sacked from governorship of Bihar.
February was comparatively eventless, apart from the death of actress
Nadira, 78. March began with the state visit of President George
W. Bush with a distinct warming of Indo-US relations. The communal
atmosphere was fouled by a series of blasts in Varanasi’s Sankat
Mochan temple and railway station, leaving 23 dead. The month ended
in a succession of deaths: Ajit Biswas of the CPM, Bhai Mohan Singh,
founder of Ranbaxy, Bansi Lal, former Defence Minister and CM of
Haryana and Manohar Shyam Joshi, the father of TV soaps.
April took its toll on life: a bus went down in the Beas, drowning
30; a fire in Meerut Trade Fair killed 50 to 100 visitors. Following
the Kannada actor Raj Krishna’s death, violence erupted in
Bangalore in which five people were killed. On the 22nd, Pramod
Mahajan, secretary of the BJP, was shot by his younger brother.
The BJP, already reeling under factional divisions, received a severe
jolt.
Noted Bollywood music director Naushad died on May 5. Most important
were the results of elections held in five states: Jayalalithaa’s
AAIDMK lost out to Karunanidhi’s DMK and she was replaced by
him as chief minister of Tamil Nadu. The Communists held their ground
in West Bengal and Kerala. The Congress won Pondicherry and Assam.
The crowning achievement of the month was when seven BSF men scaled
the Everest.
Notable obituaries in June were of the publisher, Ravi Dayal followed
11 days later by Surinder Kaur, the Punjabi folk singer.
Nandini Satpathy, 75, the fomer CM of Orissa died on August 4.
Her death was followed two days later by that of Dalit leader and
MP Suraj Bhan; a fortnight later by shehnai maestro and Bharat Ratna
Bismillah Khan and a day later by film director Hrishikesh Mukherjee.
In September, 53 miners were killed in a disaster in Dhanbad. A
bomb blast outside a mosque in Malegaon left 43 dead. Afzal Guru,
master-mind of the attack on Parliament House was sentenced to death.
Dalit leader and Mayawati’s mentor, Kanshi Ram, 74, died on
October 8. But the month was a month of awards: a Booker for Kiran
Desai, a Literature Nobel for Orhan Pamuk of Turkey and the Nobel
Peace for Mohamed Yunus of Bangladesh. The process of restoring
justice began with the death sentence for lawyer Santosh Singh for
the rape and murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo. Nemesis took another
month to catch up with Shibu Soren for murder and Navjot Sidhu for
manslaughter. Polly Umrigar, cricketer, died at 80 followed by film
director N. Sippy, 75. The most important event was the visit of
President Hu Jintao of China on the 20th.
December began badly with an overbridge collapsing on a train near
Bhagalpur, killing 34 passengers. However, on the 12th,
both Houses of the US legislature endorsed the nuclear deal with
India. It has been generally welcomed by people of both
countries. As expected, the BJP and the Communists indulged in nit-picking
for reasons of their own.
I wish my reader a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2007.
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