By Antony Cony D Souza, Karkala/Qatar

Mangaluru, Dec 31:Under present political scenario, it would be ideal to gauge success and hope of Indian economy, development, political ideology in affinity with Nehru-Gandhi family which was a powerful political dynasty over 7 decades. Then Nehru, Indira and Rajiv operated in a different ecosystem. Opposition was too weak to pose a challenge. But by late 1990s, the BJP had emerged as a serious threat to the Congress hegemony. With the emergence of Modi, the BJP attempting to replace Congress hegemony with Hindutva being the hegemonic ideology.

The Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi is extremely vulnerable. Rahul today is faced with a Herculean task. Politics is ruthless. In 2014, Rahul was pitted against the most powerful adversary faced by the Nehru-Gandhi family ever. The party had the worst performance ever in its history during 2014 parliamentary elections.

In 1977, the Congress lost and Indira Gandhi had to face the revolt. She was made of different mettle. She engineered defection within the Janata Party, displaced Morarji and, riding on the elephant, returned to power with thumping majority. 

Rahul Gandhi, her grandson, is proving now to be of Indira Gandhi’s essence showing up her mettle. Recently he could engineer 3 straight wins in the assembly elections Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh. This has created some sort of brittle fracture in the BJP led NDA ruling party. Once untouchable and non-questionable Mod-Shah duo, Ram Vilas Paswan suddenly got bargaining power and arm-twisted Modi, Shah for better deal for 2019 Lok Sabha polls in Bihar. Earlier, Chirag Paswan son of Vilas Paswan had earlier written a letter to Jaitley asking what benefits demonetization brought to the country. Taking an advantage, other NDA parties might emulate Vilas Paswan, if they do not succeed with their recent found bargain power, an exodus from BJP led NDA party could be expected. Possible? Exuding confidence that the Congress will form the government at the Centre in 2019, Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot claimed that the BJP is under pressure as its allies are deserting the coalition. He alleged that the BJP’s allies were quitting the NDA due to the arrogance of saffron party leaders and it was now under pressure which recently reflected in the seat-sharing in Bihar.

While we look back at the elections 2018, the year when Congress rose, BJP shrunk. In 2018 alone, assembly polls were conducted in nine states. Moreover, by-elections were held in 13 Lok Sabha seats and 16 assembly seats across the country. The year 2018 assumes significance for the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the Congress made a resounding comeback after consecutive debacles, and the BJP started losing grip over the country's political discourse in the last 12 months.

Senior BJP leader and highways minister Nitin Gadkari recently seemed to have kicked off a fresh controversy who said “success has many fathers and failure is an orphan”. He said that the "responsibility" of MPs and MLAs under-performing would lie at the door of the party chief. His comments, just two days after a row with his remark that "leadership should own up to defeat and failures". Modi-Shah duo perhaps is losing the grip. If they take into confidence of other party workers, perhaps they can stop recent success story of the Congress. On the contrary, despite their differences, opposition is building a grand alliance against BJP ultimately it could bring luck to Congress in the coming 2019 elections. This could turn into an election blow to Modi’s BJP. The lesson BJP has to learn from recent poll debacle is ‘Unity is Strength’ within the party line and not the ‘Statue of Unity’.

Main Events of Year 2018, Mangaluru, India

Thousands attended ordination of Mangalore Diocese Bishop

Dr Peter Paul Saldanha was ordained as the 14th Bishop of Mangalore Diocese at Rosario Cathedral in Mangaluru on September 15.

The Episcopal Ordination ceremony was led by Apostolic Administrator, Diocese of Mangaluru, Dr Aloysius Paul D’Souza and co-consecrated by Bengaluru Archbishop Dr Peter Machado and Diocese of Udupi Bishop Rev Dr Gerald Isaac Lobo. Grand sermon was delivered by Shivamogga Diocese Bishop Fr Antony Serrao.

PM Modi unveils world's tallest statue 'Statue of Unity'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31, 2018 unveiled the bronze statue of India’s first deputy prime minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel at Kevadia in Gujarat's Narmada district.

At 182 metres, the statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel will be the tallest statue in the world, surpassing the height of Spring Temple Buddha in China, which had previously held the record at 153 metres.

Rafale Combat Aircraft: Everything you need to know!

Introduced in 2001, Rafale is a twin-engine, canard-delta wing, multirole combat aircraft designed and built by French company Dassault Aviation. The aircraft is considered one of the most potent combat jets globally.
The fighter jet, equipped with a wide range of weapons, is intended to perform air supremacy, interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, ground support, in-depth strike, anti-ship strike and nuclear deterrence missions. Raflae controversy might be a political conspiracy, an election theme for a blame-game.

Government removes CBI Director Alok Verma from his post; appoints M Nageshwar Rao

In a dramatic midnight action, the Union Government on October 23, 2018 removed CBI Director Alok Verma from his post. The decision was taken by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) in the past midnight. The committee also issued an order appointing M Nageshwar Rao, presently working as Joint Director at the CBI, as Director of CBI.

The decision came after the ongoing tussle between CBI Chief Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana escalated over bribery allegations, hurled at each other.

All villages in India are now electrified: PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 29, 2018 announced that April 28 will be remembered as a historic day in the development journey of India as on this day, every single village of India was electrified.

The achievement came several days before the deadline set by PM Modi, which was May 10, 2018, for achieving the electrification of all un-electrified villages. Leisang, a village in central Manipur's Senapati district, was the last one to receive electricity on April 29, 2018 under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY).

19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit: India signs deal with Russia to buy S-400 Triumf Missiles

India and Russia on October 5, 2018 signed a USD 5.43 billion deal for India to procure the S-400 Triumf missile system from Russia. The deal was signed following the 19th India-Russia Annual Bilateral Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The system is expected to be delivered by 2020.

Sunita Williams, 8 other astronauts named by NASA for first manned US space launch since 2011

The US space agency NASA on August 3, 2018 introduced to the world the crew of nine astronauts who will fly on American-made spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) from the US soil for the first time since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011.

The astronauts include Indian-origin Sunita Williams and others. The missions will begin in 2019.

Genuinely great things that have happened in India in 2018

As we sit in the last week of this year and while we are kicking back and enjoying that well-deserved year end off it’s also probably a great time to look back at the year gone by. Sure it’s been tough in several ways but 2018 has also given us a lot of reasons to cheer.

1. India’s national blind cricket team won the 2018 Blind Cricket World Cup

In January, the Indian National Blind Cricket team went up against Pakistan at UAE’s Sarjah Cricket Stadium. India was chasing a target of 308 runs, and, in a thrilling final over, India beat Pakistan to become the World Champions. By doing so, they retained their title, that they had previously brought home in 2014.

2. Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian gymnast to clinch Gold at a global event

At the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup held in Turkey in July, Dipa Karmakar created history by becoming the first Indian gymnast to win a gold medal.

3. Sonam Wangchuk and Bharat Vaswani won the Ramon Magsaysay Award

Two of out the six winners of Ramon Magsaysay Award, famously dubbed the Nobel Prize of Asia, this year were Indian. Bharat Vaswani, a psychiatrist, was given this prestigious award for his work towards mentally-ill street people. Whereas Sonam Wangchuk, the inspiration behind Aamir Khan’s character in 3 Idiots, was awarded for using science to help improve the lives of the youth of Ladakh.

4. Sunil Chhetri became the third highest scorer in the world

During the Intercontinental Cup that was held in India this year, which also happened to be Chhetri’s 100th international match, Chhetri scored a goal, helping India bag a 3-0 win. His total tally now comes up to 64 goals. The only football players in the world to score higher than him are Cristiano Ronaldo (85) and Lionel Messi (65).

5. India gets its first ever all-female SWAT team

In August, India’s first all-female commando team was formally inducted into the Delhi Police by Union Minister Rajnath Singh. The 36 women went through 15-months of rigorous training where they were taught to handle weapons, counter terrorism and learnt Krav Maga. This team made a mark in India’s history because they were the first ones to break the male hold on the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team in the country.

6. Indian Air Force gets its first woman fighter pilot

In February, 24-year-old Avani Chaturvedi became the first woman in India to fly a fighter jet alone. The flying officer flew a MiG-21 Bison, which possesses the highest take off and landing speed in the world. Her maiden solo training lasted 30 minutes and put India on a global list of countries like USA, Israel and the UK were women play an active combat role.

7. An Indian-origin engineer won an Oscar

In March, Vikas Sathaye, a Pune-born engineer, was a part of the team that won an Oscar for Science and Technology. Sathaye and his team’s innovation — the Shotover K1 — has been recognised as an important breakthrough in filming mid-air sequences and was used in movies such as Dunkirk and Guardians of the Galaxy among others.

• February 24 - The death of legendary actress Sridevi in Dubai.
• Beginning August 15 - Kerala experienced its worst flooding in nearly a century.
• September 6 - the Supreme Court of India decriminalised homosexuality by declaring Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code unconstitutional.
• October 19 - The tragic Amritsar Train Accident which killed 59 and injured at least 100 more during Dussehra celebrations.
• October 19 - Thalapathy Vijay’s Sarkar teaser broke the record held by the Avengers for the fastest time in reaching 1 million likes in less than 5 hours (compared to their previous record 21 hours)
• October 24 - Virat Kohli completed the fastest 10,000 ODI runs in cricket.

There were many high profile weddings such as Virat/Anushka, Sonam/Anand, Priyanka/Nick and Deepika/Ranveer.

In year 2019, India will test Rahul’s leadership and also that of the Nehru-Gandhi family. The BJP knows that it can’t realize the construction of Hindu Rashtra as long as the Nehru-Gandhi family is relevant in Indian politics. The Nehru-Gandhi family is the thread which connects India’s present with the past, carries forward the legacy of the freedom struggle and represents the civilizational consensus. As long as that consensus is alive, the BJP will not succeed in its endeavor easily. So, the severe attack on Nehru, the creation of myth around Patel, portrayal of the Congress as corrupt and depiction of Rahul as good-for-nothing- (pappu) are the strings of the same narrative which wants to replace the consensus and make India a ‘Hindu Rashtra’. The battle is tough, but not impossible for both. The question is, can Rahul do it taking advantage while Modi Waves are fading which is also projected in book ‘The Paradoxical Prime Minister’ by Shashi Tharoor or can BJP succeed marching in another victory in 2019 elections?.

Should the BJP, which came to power in 2014, be given only 5 years time while the Congress was given 70 years opportunity to be in power? Why the grand position tells the people that BJP should not come back to power after its first term? Is BJP regime so corrupt? Was Congress corruption-free during its rule since independence? Cannot it be given additional one more term to finish its promised development schemes?, these are the questions which are debatable in 2019.

By Antony Cony D Souza, Karkala/Qatar