2019 - Another Year - Eventful

Eventful, indeed was the year. Even comman men have started taking interest in politics/economics. Constitution is being read and understood. Some Significant Dates which will help navigate the year are:

1st January 2019 - In a first, over 35 lakh women stood shoulder-to-shoulder across the national highways in Kerala, creating a 620 km-long human 'wall' from the northern end of Kasaragod to the southern tip as part of a state-sponsored initiative to uphold gender equality. The 'Women's wall' was conceived in the backdrop of frenzied protests witnessed in the hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala after the CPI(M)-led LDF government decided to implement the Supreme Court verdict, allowing all women to pray at the Ayyappa shrine. This was against the judgement by Supreme Court in September 2018 stating women are equally entitled to have entry to public space. For some the protest was like the Stockholm syndrome.


14th February Pulwama attack; one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were martyred. a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethpora. The attacker was identified to be Adil Ahmad Dar, a local from Pulwama district, and a member of Jaish-e-Mohammed.


26th February, Tuesday - Balakot airstrike was conducted by India in the early morning hours when Indian warplanes crossed the de facto border in the disputed region of Kashmir, and dropped bombs in the vicinity of the town of Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan. Request for restraint was made by Australia, China, US, France and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The PAF downed a MiG-21 Bison in an aerial combat, after Varthaman had shot down an F-16 of Pakistan. IAF Wing Commander pilot Abhinandan Varthaman was captured, who was handed over to India on March 1.

27 March 2019, India tested an anti-satellite weapon during an operation code named Mission Shakti (IAST; Śakti lit. "Power"). The target of the test was a satellite present in a low Earth orbit, which was hit with a kinetic kill vehicle.

23rd May 2019, Modi was reelected as the Prime Minister of India with a sweeping majority, The success of Modi 1.0 was the on ground implementation of various schemes like Swatch bharat, Ujvala, Jandhan, DBT, PM Hosing, Digital India, Mudra Loans etc. clubbed with strategies by Amit Modi Jodi, BJP is firmly in saddle, with the Congress completely decimated with A catchy slogan:'Aab Ki Baar Modi Sarkar' (Not BJP but Modi-Shah Jodi Sarkar), The usage of IT and social media to reach out to the mass, converted this election into a US presidential model, where his opponents were pushed to talking only about him, good or bad, and that publicity helped. Also seems voting machines had a part to play in the results. BJP's indulgence in horse trading to execute this installment of Operation Lotus cannot be ruled out.

23rd July 2019, Chandrayaan-2 the spacecraft was launched on its mission to the Moon from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre by a GSLV Mark III. The craft reached the Moon's orbit on 20 August 2019 and began orbital positioning manoeuvres for the landing of the Vikram lander. However, the lander deviated from its intended trajectory starting at 2.1 kilometres (1.3 mi) altitude, and had lost communication when touchdown confirmation was expected. Initial reports suggesting a crash[30][31] were confirmed by ISRO chairman K. Sivan, stating that "it must have been a hard landing". The Failure Analysis Committee concluded that the crash was caused by a software glitch.

30th July 2019, Thriple Thalaq bill was passed declaring the practice of Triple Talaq as illegal, unconstitutional and made it punishable act from 1 August 2019 which is deemed to be in effect from 19 September 2018.

5th August 2019, Article 370 providing special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir was withdrawn. "I was waiting to see this day in my lifetime." Sushma Swaraj Tweeted this and within hours had her last breath. August was the month of deaths - Starting with the 'Cafe Cofee Day - Siddartha's Suicide; Death of Sushma Swaraj to my deal Mother in Law and Sid's mother.

22 September Narendra Modi addressed "Shared Dreams, Bright Futures", Texas India Forum.2 power-soaked megalomaniacs met each other's match at Houstan while 50k cheered on and 20 k protested outside. This clearly tells us a good bit about the power of critical thinking and how each think the other to be bigots and hypocrites. Many stood with pride out in the sun, drenched in honest sweat, outside the NRG stadium, in Houston, with prefabricated posters, T-shirts, flags, etc. which they believed to be the moral side of history, while the another lot danced to the tunes of the megalomaniacs inside the opulence of the NRG stadium.

9th Nov 2019 finally decision was made on Ayodhya dispute. The Supreme Court, in a 1,045-page, unanimous verdict by a five-judge constitution bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, brought closure to the case, one community ended up with the 'site' and the other with a five-acre plot not by virtue of being the majority and minority nor because of faith, but because the apex court unambiguously believes in the evidence of 'actual worship down the centuries'. The reasoning, according to the learned judges, was that while both parties Ram Lalla Virajman and the Sunni Central Waqf Board had competing rights over the disputed site, lawyers representing the Hindus had provided better evidence of continuous worship compared to the Muslims. Critics argue that judgement was relied on "faith instead of law and reason" and that the judgment has "sided with majoritarianism".

11th Dec 2019 CAB was passed in parliament. This is not anything new - Upto Article 15 of the Constitution, already covered it - But the year ended with unrest about it; presumably because:
1) Ethnicity of people in states like Assam was being effected
2) Some linked it to NRC, which was done in Assam and yet to be implemented in the rest of the country - and saw the danger of the minority being persecuted
3) Politicians made it a religious issue for the reasons best known
4) Haste in passing the bill, without explaining and bringing the minority into confidence

My thought - rather than making the 'bill - presently passed' so complicated - why could they not just have included in the amendment clause - 'Includes' - minorities of neighboring countries; and minority 'means' - anyone who is not the major population of that country and constitute say 5% of the population of that country?

By the end of the year the State Election results have shown that, India is firmly back to being a federal constitutional entity – The politics of the state is challenging the politics of the centre; which had strong majority of the same party for some time. People started making distinction between national and state. Our PM is a leader by himself – but not all powerful a popular leader – i.e. he cannot win lamp post state election. Poli - Tricks was seen in many state elections and how all efforts were made to keep the seats like in Karnataka, Maharashtra which are different stories by themselves - interesting ones. After 11 days of presidents rule, when the news papers had morning headlines on 23rd November - that NCP/Sena/Congress would form a collision government in Maharashtra; the news in the web media read the Devendra Fadnavis had swron in as CM in the wee hours of the morning. He was in office for three days - what was the real agenda behind that? Then followed a week of interesting drama.

14th July 2019 though England had lost early wickets, B Strokes kept the game going. Towards end New Zealand had missed catches, catch becoming six, and a two becoming four which eventually turned to six, all pointing towards a lucky day for England and the match ending in a tie of 241 each. Now it was time for Super Over. 6 balls per team. Six balls or two wickets whichever is earlier finishes the super over. England Scored 15 runs with batting continued by Stokes and Buttler. Neesham and N Guptil from NZ took over. And here too there was a tie, with Guptil being run out on the last ball!! England became champions based on number of boundaries. England scored 26 boundaries in total in the entire duration of the match as compared to 17 by the Black Caps and were thus crowned as champions, winning the world cup cricket. Indeed hard luck for New Zealand. Men in Blue were toppers through out, but was chucked out in the Semifinals.

Other highlights in sports were National record holder Dutee Chand became the first Indian woman track and field athlete to clinch a gold medal at the 30th Summer University Games in Napoli, Italy after she won the 100m dash event in July this year; Hima Das, who won five successive gold medals in different meets across Poland and the Czech Republic in July within 20 days. Four of her victories came in the 200m sprint while her fifth top-podium finish was in the 400m event; PV Sindhu on August 25 became the first Indian to win gold in BWF World Badminton Championships by beating familiar rival Nozomi Okuhara of Japan in a lop-sided final in Basel; Para-badminton player Manasi Joshi also created history by securing gold at the BWF Para-Badminton World Championships, just a day before Sindhu; India's middle-distance runner PU Chitra ran her season's best to win the women's 1500m gold at the Folksam Grand Prix in Sweden in June after winning the gold in the Asian Championships in April.

Indian-American Abhijit Banerjee, his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer jointly won the 2019 Nobel Economics Prize on a Monday, 14th October "for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty."

On the last Monday of the year - 30th December India gets her first Chief of defence staff, General Bipin Rawat, the senior-most uniformed military adviser to the Government of India. .. The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) is the professional tri-service chief of the Indian Armed Forces and ill serve as the first CDS till December 2022, coordinating the army, navy and airforce.


Amdist all these Paul Salopek in his Year 6 of a Global Journalism Journey - On his 'out of Eden' walk across the planet that bridges continents, languages, nationalities and creeds was in India covering around 1,800 miles including the banks of Ganga and Brahmaputra; naming his Chapter 'Riverlands' and exploring the mounting effects of dramatic environmental change, including climate woes, rapid urbanization, growing communal tensions in the world’s largest democracy, and the tenuous endurance of South Asia’s many varied cultures.

Stand up performance was not just from Shashi Tharoor in One Mic stand; but from the actor parliamentarian Smriti Irani. Remember her Rohit Vemula lies and 'Satya Meva Jayate' speech full of lies? She outdid herself again by twisting a statement by Rahul Gandhi to interpret it as a 'Clarion Call' to 'Rape in India'. All because they wanted to kill another debate on North East, CAA, NRC and Kashmir. And the entire BJP MP's, without morality, responsibility or principles, disrupted parliament. Here was a ruling party disrupting parliament; though there were two long sessions and many bills passed this year. Then we had the duo giving us hearty laugh...Gaurav Vallabh and Sambit Patra.

Each day brings new horrors of depravity against women! You think it can't get worse..but it does! While Nirbhaya's Delhi High Court hearing is adjourned - Tarikh pe tarikh. Tarikh pe tarikh, Are we waiting for shashtipurthi of culprits? there are new cases sprouting across the countries - with poor victims burned to death, and poor criminal's being shot - while rich criminal's still moving around being MP's and MLA's.

Need of the hour:

Stop talking of how many woman were raped, but say how many men raped women;
Stop saying how many police saved victims or killed culprits, but say how many police prevented possibilities;
Stop discriminating and murdering our constitution, but uphold and protect it;
Stop passing bills like Citizenship Amendment Act, but pass bills like politicians amendment act - restricting entry for criminals in parliament;
Stop attacking on people having different views, accept the differences, patience - tolerance pays;
Stop arriving at a 'perfect conclusion' reached at by majority creating discord, agree for an imperfect decision arrived at by consensus leading to harmony;

" Those of us whose faith in India’s democratic system was absolute now face the sobering realisation that its roots may be shallower than we had allowed ourselves to believe"

Indian government must create an atmosphere of trust to improve consumer/society/economy/mass sentiments. Social reforms and changes are also needed, but has to be properly planned and prioritized. For the year end protests Government also has their share for not being able to foresee and for being in a hurry...what people say is home ministry is in a home delivery spree. Either other departments should come to his speed or he should slow down. How would it be if only one tire of your car go in super speed? All can see, what it is to be misruled. We did need doers, we did have hare and tortise in the past, but seems now is the time for Cheetah. The actions of the Government do determine, the direction, that they are heading towards.

Climatic change has been impacted like never before with India going through an unprecedented natural disaster with eight states experiencing heavy to very heavy rains for days, including neighboring countries, while few other states had almost near drought, and few states have highest winter in 120 years. Unemployment is at its highest in the near past. 12 of the worlds 15 most polluted cities are in India, poverty, malnourishment, falling living standard, agriculture distress, middle-class distress, increasing gap between rich & poor continue to be daily issues.

Environmental system includes - strengthen economic, political and social security - which can be strengthened with strong laws, powerful system and ethics. This can happen with radical leadership. So Environmental problem today is no more confined to Air, Water, or Sound pollution. Need is to save democracy, which have a huge say in the investments. Give priority to people and planet and not profit or religion. Cataract continues to be the third biggest cause of blindness, religion and politics remaining the first two. It's so interesting to see for one same event/situation/decision required some like, some love, some cry and some are angry about it. That's life. Nothing is completely right. It all depend on the time, situation, mood, thoughts and surroundings of the person.

When it comes to rulers—or their Dewans—who can change the lives of an entire population, small acts have huge consequences. Our mistakes may not matter to anyone; theirs could cost a great deal.

People make history. You and I, and everyone around us, are shaping history in our own microscopic ways. Our actions are affected by normal human feelings like jealousy, ego, helplessness, arrogance, love, kindness and so forth.

Hope in the coming year we become better - than who, how and where we are today!

Sathyameva Jayathe!