2017: The year in a flash

Heralding the shift to a ‘One Nation, One Tax’ regime, the then president Pranab Mukherjee and PM Narendra Modi launched the Goods and Services Tax by pressing a ceremonial button at midnight on June 30-July 1 in the Central Hall of the Parliament. On 6 October, the government made six changes to GST to provide relief to small and medium businesses, and exporters. Again on 10 November, the GST Council reduced rates for 178 items. GST also became a playground for witty political sparring with Rahul Gandhi calling it Gabbar Singh Tax and Modi retaliating by calling Gandhi’s ideas ‘Grand Stupid Thoughts’.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi trained one at former prime minister Manmohan Singh, saying he knows the art of taking a bath while wearing a raincoat. “Bathroom main raincoat pehan ke nahane ki kala sirf wohi jante hain,” he said. The remark led to an instant walkout by Congress members from the Rajya Sabha and the scheduled House proceedings were disrupted until yesterday, until Finance Minister Arun Jaitley finally clarified that ‘PM Modi did not mean to question Manmohan Singh’s commitment to India.”

A 74-day standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in Doklam — a tri-junction between India, China and Bhutan — was triggered in mid-June as Indian troops stopped the Chinese from building a road in the disputed region. China’s presence in the region would give them direct access to India’s Siliguri corridor and violate agreements between the three countries. India ensured that China stopped the construction. “Flexing of muscles has started,” said Army Chief General Bipin Rawat about China’s attempts to claim Indian territory, “and salami slicing will gradually turn to taking over territory, testing our limits of threshold.”

On February 11, DRDO successfully test-fired an indigenous nuclear interceptor missile off the coast of Odisha. It destroyed an incoming ballistic missile in a direct hit, demonstrating the capability of India’s Ballistic Missile Shield, which is under development. On June 5, ISRO successfully launched its heaviest satellite GSLV-MKIII-D1 — at 3,136 kgs — aboard the biggest rocket it has ever made. As the rocket shot off and the satellite reached its destined orbit, it signified the culmination of 25 years’ work. On June 22, NASA launched the world’s smallest satellite, called Kalam SAT after former president Dr APJ Kalam. The 64-gram probe was built by 18-year-old student Rifath Sharook from Tamil Nadu and his team.

Uttar Pradesh election results declared the Bharatiya Janata Party victorious and reiterated PM Modi’s superwave in the 403-seat state. The BJP, in the crucial Assembly elections billed as a semi-final before the 2019 General elections, surprised the pollsters and delivered one of its best performance in UP in decades. The party also swept Himachal Pardesh and they won Gujarat, again, making it the sixth consecutive term there.

Former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced to death by Pakistan’s Field General Court Martial on April 10 after a three-and-a-half-month long trial. He is accused of espionage and working for the India’s R&AW. He was arrested from Balochistan on March 3 last year. The issue snowballed into a flash point for India-Pakistan relations. PM Modi govt’s diplomatic gamble in approaching a world body against Pakistan paid off when the International Court of Justice ruled in favour of India on May 18 and stayed the execution of Jadhav. Pakistan allowed Jadhav’s mother and wife to meet him on December 25.

In a historic decision on August 22, the Supreme Court called the controversial practice of ‘talaq-e-biddat’, which allows Muslim men to divorce their wives instantly by uttering “talaq” thrice, “manifestly arbitrary” and declared it illegal. The vedrict marked a huge victory for lakhs of Muslim women. The verdict was delivered by a panel of five judges from different major faiths. The then Chief Justice of India JS Khehar & Justice S Abdul Nazeer, in their minority judgement, put the onus of passing a new law on to the legislature within 6 months. On December 15, the Union Cabinet approved the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, outlawing instant triple talaq by making it a cognisable and non-bailable offence, which will now attract a jail term of three years.

Nitish Kumar took oath as the Bihar Chief Minister on July 27 with support from his erstwhile partner BJP after he dropped a political bomb and quit the post on July 26. He sank the grand alliance, which he had formed only 20 months ago, with the RJD and the Congress. Nitish said he had responded to the “voice of conscience” as it had become impossible to function in the coalition, referring to a maze of corruption charges against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his two sons Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav.

Rahul Gandhi was elected the Congress president unopposed on December 11, a much-awaited generational shift in India’s oldest political party. He formally took over the mantle of the 132-year-old Indian National Congress (INC) on December 16, also the party’s foundation day. Curtains came down on Sonia Gandhi who had been the party’s longest serving president, leading the Congress for 19 years since 1998. She continues to be UPA chairperson and head of the Congress Parliamentary Party.

Holding that the prosecution had “miserably failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt”, a special CBI court on December 21 acquitted all 21 accused, including former Telecom Minister A Raja, DMK Rajya Sabha MP M Kanimozhi, top corporates and bureaucrats of corruption and money laundering charges in the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam case.