2011 has been marked by lows and highs, gains and losses, anguish and exhilaration, despair and triumph. This has been the year that fearless whistle-blowers forced corruption out of the cracks. The year of the Jan Lokpal Bill. The year that terror reminded us of the tenacity we must summon up to fight it. The year that the World Cup came home. In telling pictures, we look at the events that defined 2011 in India.
AFP PHOTO/Prakash Singh
The arrest of Andimuthu Raja by the Central Bureau of Investigation February 2 marked a significant turn in the investigation into the 2G spectrum scam. During Raja’s tenure as Cabinet Minister for Communication and Information Technology in 2007-08, the government issued 122 new telecom licenses. These licenses were acquired in violation of rules and provisions. Bribes were paid to favor certain players who had suppressed facts, had no experience in the telecom sector, or were otherwise ineligible to be awarded licenses. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report held Raja accountable for the sale of 2G spectrum at 2001 rates in 2008. Despite the overwhelming demand for Raja’s ouster, he clung on with support from party chief M Karunanidhi. Eventually, he resigned from the Union Cabinet in November 2010. In 2011, an investigation headed by retired judge Shivraj Patil found Raja guilty of “procedural lapses” in the sale of 2G spectrum. The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate further estimated that Raja had amassed up to Rs 3,000 crore in bribes. Raja’s dubious achievement made the cover story of TIME magazine, which ranked the 2G spectrum scam just after Watergate on the list of “Top 10 Abuses of Power”.
This time for Sachin
AP Photo/Gurinder Osan
When India opened its 2011 ICC World Cup campaign, skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni declared that he wanted to win the coveted trophy for the tournament’s most seasoned campaigner, Sachin Tendulkar. Though India opened its account with an emphatic win over co-hosts Bangladesh, the rest of the tournament turned into an anxious roller-coaster ride as India salvaged only a tie against England and lost to South Africa. Eventually, India demolished sworn rivals Pakistan in a thrilling semi-final at Mohali and beat Sri Lanka in the final at Mumbai. For Tendulkar, who scored 482 runs in the tournament, the cricket-besotted nation’s moment of glory was extra-sweet. Cricket’s cup of cheer had finally come home after 28 years.
Soldier of conscience
AP Photo/Kevin Frayer
Social activist and anti-corruption crusader Kisan Baburao Hazare, popularly known as Anna Hazare, became the face of a momentous public campaign to revive the Jan Lokpal Bill. Also known as the Citizen’s Ombudsman Bill, the first Jan Lokpal Bill was introduced by advocate Shanti Bhushan in 1968 and introduced in the fourth Lok Sabha the following year. Though the Bill was tabled subsequently on nine occasions, it was never passed. Forty-two years after its introduction, the campaign for the Bill’s revival in 2011 has been accompanied by a groundswell of public support. Drafted by former Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, the Bill was championed by Hazare, yoga guru Baba Ramdev, Supreme Court lawyer Prashant Bhushan (son of the Bill’s first campaigner), RTI campaigner Arvind Kejriwal and others. The Government of India, which rejected the Hazare camp’s draft of the Jan Lokpal Bill, introduced a revised Bill for the tenth time during the Monsoon Session of the Parliament. In response Hazare announced that he will go on an indefinite fast from August 16 in protest against the government’s tabling of a “weak” Bill.
The people’s doctor walks free
AFP PHOTO
Dr Binayak Sen, pediatrician, public health activist and national vice president of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties who was accused of sedition by the Chhattisgarh government, was granted bail by the Supreme Court of India. Sen had been working in the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh offering free public healthcare. The doctor, who had worked with the government on health sector reform, strongly criticized its anti-Naxalite operations for human rights violation. In May 2007 he was arrested for his alleged support of the outlaws under evidence of his meetings with Naxalite leaders. The global community including a section of the medical fraternity expressed outrage at Sen’s imprisonment while human rights watchdogs condemned it as a politically motivated move. Amnesty International described Sen as a prisoner of conscience and said his incarceration amounted to contravention of human rights and international law. Nobel laureates from around the world wrote to the President of India and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, as well as the Chhattisgarh state government, pleading for Sen’s release. Though the doctor was granted bail in 2009, he was charged with sedition in 2010 in Raipur and kept in solitary confinement. April 15, the Supreme Court of India granted bail to Binayak Sen, rejecting the charges of sedition against him.
Sathya Sai Baba attains samadhi
AFP PHOTO/ Dibyangshu Sarkar
Sathya Sai Baba counted among his devotees India’s most influential politicians (including former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee), sportspersons (including Sachin Tendulkar), industrialists and film personalities. Hailed as a godman by his followers, who by some estimates number nearly 100 million all over the world, he became an icon for spirituality, philanthropy and education. Puttaparthi, the small Andhra Pradesh town where he was born Sathyanarayana Raju in 1926, became a magnet for his flock. Here, Sai Baba established a charitable multi-specialty hospital, schools, an airport and a university. Controversy over his powers to materialize foodstuff, gold and other objects from thin air made him the target of rationalists who ascribed such phenomena to sleight of hand and mass hysteria of enraptured devotees. In later years, his establishment came under attack over allegations of sexual abuse. However, no charges were framed. Sathya Sai Baba, who claimed to be a reincarnation of the mystic Sai Baba of Shirdi who died eight years before he was born, had predicted his own death in 2019 but died this year on April 24. He had also predicted that he would reincarnate in 2023 in a Karnataka village, though his followers believe he might return as early as next year. Following his death, his trust has been embroiled in controversy over alleged unaccounted wealth. In three rounds of inventory, nearly Rs 59 crore worth of gold, silver and cash have been recovered from various institutions under the Sathya Sai Trust.
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