The year 2015 was fraught with terror, renaming of certain important institutions and government’s brinkmanship at displaying instant diplomacy. Right on the first day of the year, the Central Government renamed the erstwhile Planning Commission as the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI). It was meant to facilitate and empower the critical requirement of good governance, which is people-centric, participative, transparent and policy-driven. It was further hoped that it would provide directional and strategic inputs for facilitating the development process in a growth-oriented manner. It was also meant to be an incubator and disseminator of fresh thoughts and ideas. While the secular needs of development were essential, the religion-census was released by the Government. India now has 966.3 million Hindus, making up almost 79.8 per cent of the population. According to this census, 7.22 millions are Muslims, who make up 14.23 per cent of the population. Among the other minorities, Christians make up 2.3 per cent of the population and Sikhs 1.72 per cent. The study also finds that the Muslim population is growing at a little faster rate than the Hindus’.
On the international front, a fresh page was opened with a budding trend which is called “Modibama”. Bilateral talks between the US and India have been taken to a new height in the past year.
A Naga Piece Pact was signed providing the professed foundation for a possibility of bringing to an end the oldest insurgency in the country. The Supreme Court struck down the Constitutional amendments paving the way for enactment of the National Judicial Appointment Commission Act. The 22-year-old collegium system was dear to the heart of the apex judiciary. It came to be asserted that independence of judiciary can be protected by insulating the judiciary from outside influences. But the oligarchy of the collegium system was admitted to be having deficiencies and the apex court is presently going to engage itself in fine-tuning the collegium system so as to make it objective and transparent.
History will boldly record the event on August 1 as India and Bangladesh implemented the 40-year-old land boundary agreement by exchanging 162 adversely-held enclaves. This resulted in 14,000 residents of 51 Bangladesh enclaves in Cooch Behar district becoming Indian citizens. It was further reported that about 37,000 person inhabiting 111 Indian enclaves in four Bangladeshi districts got Indian citizenship.
One Rank One Pension (OPOP) scheme was announced by the Government after protracted agitations. There were fundamental differences between the pensioners and the Government that remained unanswered and continued to plague the Government.
For the first time, the BJP joined hands with the PDP to form a Government in J&K.
In Delhi, Kejriwal and his AAP bagged as many as 67 seats in the 70-member Assembly while the BJP won just three seats and the INC was down to ground zero. In Bihar, the Maha Gathbandhan won three-fourths of Assembly seats. This was not to the expectation or the liking of the BJP.
Financial scams raised their heads in many States. The Vyapam scam had its murky death trap of murders in Madhya Pradesh. The chit fund scam in Assam, Best Bengal, Odisha and other adjoining States had fostered with a lot of patronage, and a well-known terrorist was finally hanged to death. The Supreme Court had to intervene in the Vyapam and chit fund scams and entrust the CBI with investigations.
President Abdul Kalam breathed his last on July 27. Wheeler Island in Bhadrak district of Odisha has been renamed as Abdul Kalam Island. But his place of birth at Rameswaram has remained totally neglected despite the promise of a suitable memorial at the spot.
The Patidars of Gujarat led by 22-year old Hardik Patel demanded OBC status to be accorded to their community. Hardik is now in jail on alleged sedition charges, but the ruling BJP has suffered a political setback with dismal results in local body polls. Jayalalithaa was acquitted by the appellate court, the High Court of Karnataka, in a disproportionate asset case. The matter has been carried to the Supreme Court.
There was a growing demand for declassification of Netaji files with pressure being built from a foreign land to the Prime Minister’s residence by the progenies of the Bose family and other supporters. The West Bengal Government declassified 64 files of the legendary Subhas Bose. The files did not make any startling disclosures regarding the mysterious death of Subhas. But to the common man, it looked as though Mamata Banarjee had scored a point and outsmarted the BJP-led Central Government which had promised to make public the hitherto secret filed on Bose on January 23, 2016 (his birthday).
There was strong reaction and protest against rising trend of intolerance and hatred. Several writers returned the awards they had received to express their protest. Their allegation was that “the fringe has become the mainstream”. Those who did not agree included Anupam Kher and some other awardees from Odisha.
Chota Rajan was finally brought back to India after 29 years’ chase. He has now to face the charges of several crimes after being extradited from Indonesia. The law Commission of India in one of its reports recommended speedy abolition of death penalty from the statute books except in cases where the accused is convicted of involvement in terror cases. The land acquisition and rehabilitation Bill as promulgated from January 1, 2014 was proposed to be amended by the ruling BJP. This was stoutly opposed as anti-people and pro-rich. The Central Government despite all its endeavours had to yield to the demand of the agitators.
In different parts of the country, especially in Odisha, controversial godmen and gonwomen faced serious trouble. Many Babas in Odisha stood exposed and many of them are still in custody. The events shook the faith of the devotees and prima facie exposed the activities of such men and women.
Prime Minister Modi tried to be in limelight by his birthday and wedding day call on the President of Pakistan.
Suicide by distressed farmers continued in Odisha. The Government denied that indebtedness or failure of crop caused by drought was responsible for this.
Democracy was throttled with the behaviours of people’s representatives in connection with the affairs of the proceedings of the Houses of Parliament and State legislatures. If the monsoon session was a washed out, the winter session was a frozen one. The year began with the devastating earthquake of Nepal.
Odisha had a controversial Nabakalebar of the deities at Puri.
In this cross-fire of interests in 2015, we now move on to 2016 which will be a crucial year of dramatic and far-reaching changes. The nation shall develop only when the youth resolutely debate the issues confronting them and put forth their views in a candid manner. There is an inherent weakness in this sector attributable to machinations of politicians, and this can only be rectified by the youth collaboration with the elders who have the growth of the youth as their agenda. Surely, this concerns us all!
(The writer, a Senior Advocate, is a former All India Service officer, a former diplomat, a former editor, a former President of Orissa High Court Bar Association and a former Advocate General of Odisha. jayantdas@hotmail.com)