Looking back at India in year 2012

2012 was a rough ride year for the country, which had to negotiate the choppy waters of domestic politics, face a situation of mass exodus from North East and face one of the worst power cut situations in its history.

Leading on from the year 2011, corruption continued to be a focus issue this year too. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India sparked off a major row by questioning manner of government's allocation of coal blocks to private parties that resulted in a loss of revenue.

Parliament witnessed disruptions with Opposition attacking the Government on key policy issues like FDI in retail. The Trinamool Congress withdrew over the reforms in the FDI.

The Cabinet itself faced a reshuffle twice this year, the first when Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee became the President of the country in July with the then Home Minister P Chidambaram being given the finance portfolio.

Samajwadi Party retained power in Uttar Pradesh so also Narendra Modi was elected to power for the third consecutive term in Gujarat while the Congress Party won in Manipur and Uttrakhand and retained power in Himachal Pradesh.

Riots sparked off in Assam between ethnic Bodos and migrant minorities leading to a backlash in other states of the country.

Booker prize-winning author Salman Rushdie was forced to withdraw from the Jaipur Literature Festival. Nearly four years after the Mumbai terror attack. Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving Pakistani gunman of the 26/11 attacks was hanged to death.

Two Italian marines allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen off Kerala's coast in February. The arrest of two girls over their Facebook post triggered an outrage in the country. The northern electricity grid fails leading to one of the worst blackouts faced by the country. The fag end of the year was dominated by outrage over the gangrape and death of a 23-year-old student in Delhi. Following is the diary of events during 2012:

... contd.

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