Not a dull moment. Whether it was the late night airing of the biggest currency overhaul in New Delhi or the unprecedented sacking of a chief minister by his patriarch-cum-party boss in Uttar Pradesh or the unfortunate demise of the sitting chief minister in Tamil Nadu and the musical chair over the CM-post in Arunachal Pradesh -- shock and surprise acquired a new meaning in 2016.
For posterity, it could very well be remembered as the Year of Demonetisation. But as the year turned, it seems the palace coup in Lucknow would top the charts. Though no one knows how the events will play themselves out in UP, in the New Year leading up to the elections in spring. Will Akhilesh Yadav continue as chief minister? Is a rapprochement between Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son still possible? Will the state see a spell of President’s Rule as insiders are speculating?
The reason for this likelihood is that if a split within the Samajwadi Party is actually formalised, neither the son nor the father may have enough numbers, which is 203, to cling on to power till the polls.
Anyway, the events in Lucknow only capped a year filled with drama. The element of shock-and-surprise was not restricted to India. Britain voted to leave the European Union, but before anyone could get over Brexit, the election of a maverick billionaire tycoon by the people of USA stunned the world. Donald Trump’s Freudian slip may have given us the word of the year —“unpresidented’’.
If this standard is carried on and Scotland holds another referendum, Great Britain may have to shed a bit of its greatness.
All these events were more than just shock-inducers. They all have immense potential for long-term consequences. Much of the coming year may be spent coping with the disruptions that broke the status quo.
If social media was almost an actor in the political theatre across the world, in India digital technology came to acquire an additional metaphoric value as a synonym for cleanliness. Prime Minister Narendra Modi managed to make all other parties, particularly in the opposition, appear to be undeserving old elite living off dirty old economy, while giving his own Bharatiya Janata Party the political symbol of Swachh India.
Consequently, India politics underwent a tectonic shift of sorts. The old arrangement of the playing field-the Congress versus the rest-has been transformed into BJP versus the rest.
The electoral fights of 2016 saw the saffron party’s footprint extend to hitherto virgin territories. Most stunningly, after 15 years of Congress rule, Assam became the first north-eastern state to get a BJP government. The musical chairs in Arunachal Pradesh also saw BJP being catapulted to power.