Milestones: 2020 in India was the year of discontent

Attack on JNU: The year began with a group of masked vandals entering the protected JNU campus and ransacking the hostels. They beat up students and faculty members. They were linked to the ABVP and BJP and filmed. But Delhi Police stood by and at the end of the year, none of the perpetrators has been booked. Komal Sharma, where are you?

Shaheen Bagh: A group of Muslim women of all ages protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) caught the imagination of the people. While many of the protestors were arrested during the lockdown, the whereabouts of the two who opened fire at the protestors remains unknown. The ‘dadis’ inspired students, poets and singers and triggered a hundred protests. Eighty-two years old BilkisDadi became the face of the movement and was listed by TIME and BBC among the 100 most influential people and the 100 most inspiring women from across the world.

Aam Aadmi Party: For the second successive term AAP won the Delhi Assembly election convincingly by bagging 62 of the 70 seats. BJP lost despite a high voltage and bruising campaign during which the Home Minister Amit Shah called upon people to send electric shocks to Shaheen Bagh and junior Finance Minister Anurag Singh Thakur called protestors traitors and instigated people to shoot them. AAP however refrained from supporting anti-CAA protests at Shaheen Bagh.

Namaste Trump: Prime Minister Narendra Modi filled up Motera cricket stadium in Ahmedabad with 100,000 people to greet his ‘friend’ Donald Trump. Walls were erected between the airport and the stadium to keep slums out of the visiting US President’s sight. Widely seen as a gesture to boost the image of POTUS in an election year, the outgoing US President reciprocated by awarding the ‘highest military award’ the Legion of Merit on the Indian PM barely a month before stepping down as US President.

Delhi Riots: A blot on the national capital and Delhi Police, which reports to the Union Home Ministry, 53 people were killed. The week-long rioting in a small corner of the capital was extensively recorded on camera but the investigation has been selective. Policemen seen taking law in their hands, pelting stones or beating young men have not been proceeded against. A Delhi High Court judge who questioned the role of Delhi Police was overnight transferred. Delhi Police arrested a large number of anti CAA protestors and charged them with defaming the country and the PM and for instigating the riots. Strangely, no curfew was declared and after a week the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was pressed into service to enforce order.

Harsh Lockdown: After ignoring pandemic warnings since February, allowing Delhi elections, riots and Namaste Trump events— and claiming in mid-March that there was no health emergency and the pandemic would have no adverse impact on the economy, the Government clamped down a total lockdown at four hours’ notice. The PM’s PR exercises which included asking people to light lamps at 9 pm and beat pots and pans at 5 pm and ensuring Air Force planes shower flowers on hospitals, however, failed to contain the virus in 21 days.

Migrants on the road: End of March and April saw millions of migrant workers, rendered jobless and homeless by the lockdown, walk back home in the absence of public transport. They walked, took a lift in trucks and cycled thousands of kilometers with their meager belongings, often going without food. The Government said it has no data on how many died on the way. The army was not pressed into service and the sea of humanity on highways shook the nation. Several of them were mowed down by a goods train when they lay down and fell asleep on the track, believing trains were not running.

Tablighi Jamaat: The Government in March clamped down on religious order Tablighi Jamaat for congregating in Delhi during the pandemic and for allegedly spreading the coronavirus. Hundreds of followers, many from abroad, were arrested and put behind bars. The TV channels went to town vilifying the order till the courts intervened and ordered them to be freed, six months after they were held.

Chinese intrusion in Ladakh: As many as 20 Indian soldiers and an unspecified number of Chinese soldiers died in a hand-tohand, unarmed skirmish in eastern Ladakh. The border crisis flared up following China’s Peoples Liberation Army intruding into territory traditionally patrolled by the Indian Army. While the Defence Minister admitted that a thousand square kilometres of Indian territory had been taken over by China, the Prime Minister told an all-party meeting that India had not lost an inch of land.

Supreme Court of India: The Supreme Court of India again failed to take up challenges to the Election Bond and abrogation of Article 370, ignored Habeas Corpus petitions, accepted the Government’s version on illegal detentions on verbal orders in Kashmir, prosecuted lawyer Prashant Bhushan for contempt of court and served notice on stand up comic Kunal Kamra and cartoonist Rachita Taneja for contempt. Another controversial year for the Indian judiciary.

PM CARES: An avoidable controversy was invited by the Government, which launched a PM CARES relief fund ignoring the existing Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. Worse, the Government claimed it was a private fund, denied information under the RTI, declared it would not be audited and made multiple U-turns claiming alternately that it was a public and a private fund. While the Trust deed described it as a private fund, government employees, armed forces, PSU employees were forced to donate. Petitions challenging the legality of the fund remains pending before the Supreme Court.

Sushant Singh Rajput ‘suicide’: The suicide by the Bollywood actor, who was apparently under treatment for bipolar disease and depression, turned into a high octane thriller with the central government handing over the case to CBI, D, and the Narcotics Control Bureau. What began as a campaign for securing justice for the Bihari actor ahead of the assembly election in the state, turned into a witch hunt with the actor’s girlfriend Rhea Chakrabarty and her brother arrested for allegedly helping the actor access drugs. No evidence of foul play has yet been found.

Best governed state and best CM: Media houses fell over each other this year to declare Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath as the best chief minister. Growing lawlessness, attack on the police in Kanpur, encounter deaths, UP Police putting up billboards or hoardings naming anti-CAA protestors, mishandling of the Hathras rape and murder case, arresting Dr Kafil Khan under NSA, prosecuting a number of journalists in the state for critical posts and the so-called ‘Love Jihad’ ordinance prompted several structures by the Allahabad High Court. But the monk remained the media’s favourite. It is a coincidence that his government spent a record amount on publicity and advertisements.

Growing public protests: The year was marked by protests. Beginning with the antiCAA protests and culminating with the farmers’ protest, the year witnessed as many as three ‘Bharat Bandh’ calls by trade unions and farmers’ unions in January, November and December. Protests by NEET students seeking postponement of exams, protests by doctors, nurses, and health workers against non-payment of salary and inadequate protective gear to cope with the pandemic were also held. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) protested against ‘Mixopathy’ for allowing Ayurvedic doctors carry out the surgery. The New Education Policy (NEP), dilution of labour laws and hasty farm laws also triggered country-wide protests.

Farm Laws: Three ordinances in June, refusal to send the Bills to Pariamentary committees for scrutiny, not allowing division in the Rajya Sabha and refusal to speak to farmers in October and November indicate how reasonable the Government has been on farm laws. The Government has dug its heels even as ten of thousands of farmers have been camping at the borders of Delhi for the past month seeking repeal of the laws.

New Education Policy (NEP): It was unveiled during the year to open up Indian higher education to foreign universities, dismantling of the UGC and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), introduction of a four-year multi-disciplinary undergraduate programme with multiple exit options and discontinuation of the M Phil programme.

Freedom Index: India fell 17 spots and was placed at the 111th spot out of 162 countries. In 2019, India ranked 94 on the index. The index takes into account 76 indicators of personal, civil, and economic freedoms to make the ranking.

Hunger Index: India ranked 94 among 107 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2020 and has been put in the ‘serious’ hunger category. Last year India’s rank was 102 out of 117. Worryingly, India is doing worse than Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indonesia among others.

Jammu & Kashmir: The situation in the Union Territory continued to be tense though many of the political leaders in illegal detention were freed. New Domicile laws and laws allowing outsiders to buy land in the UT did little to allay apprehensions. PAGD (People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration) was formed to restore J & K’s special status. PAGD contested the District Development Council elections and did better than expected while BJP was rebuffed in the Valley despite campaigning extensively. Acts of terror, the government admitted before the Supreme Court, continued unabated.

(Compiled by Sanjukta Basu)