Sunanda K. Datta-Ray | 2023 was a stormy year: Will 2024 be any better?

Man and Nature conspired to make 2023 one of the most disastrous in living memory. Governments confronted each other while public opinion across the globe condemned the inhumane violence over the vengeance that Israel exacted on Gaza, Russia’s military adventure in Ukraine, and China’s muscle-flexing in the Far East.

India thrived on the world’s distress. Distrusting Palestinians, Israel turned to India for thousands of unskilled labourers. The Ukraine war enabled India to import cut-price Russian oil and profit handsomely from selling refined products to Western governments that cannot deal directly with Russia because of American sanctions.

But 2023 was also a grim reminder of the dangers that threaten a world without powerful leadership. Minor quarrels can spiral into major conflicts when national ambition is unimpeded by international obligations. The countries of the Global South, especially Arab nations, found new confidence to pursue their own destinies unfettered by American hegemony. Friction sizzled in Myanmar, Yemen, Congo, Sudan and elsewhere. China continued to nibble at India’s northern border while treating the South China Sea like a domestic lake.

Nearly 60,000 people died when an earthquake ravaged Turkey and Syria. Nearly 15,000 were killed in what Russian President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation” and not an invasion of Ukraine. Indians recalled Operation Polo, which sealed Hyderabad’s accession to the Union.

Israel’s relentless bombing of Gaza, ignoring President Joe Biden’s feeble objections, killed more than 20,000 people and reduced bustling Gaza to a wasteland. Pope Francis was “appalled”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not. “We stand in solidarity with Israel at this difficult hour”, he declared.

India sent Chandrayaan-3 to a virtually unknown corner of the Moon and claimed a place in the global sun. India also overtook China’s population, accounted for the largest diaspora known to mankind, and the biggest expatriate remittances. It remained the world’s biggest democracy. But for Sabeer Bhatia, ethnic Indian inventor of Hotmail, “90 per cent of the innovation industry is copycat in India, there is nothing new they do”. The United Nations Security Council did not elevate India to the high table of international management.

Israel insisted that targeting civilians was not its policy. India insisted that eliminating dissidents was not its policy. Canada accused India of being complicit in the murder of a Canadian citizen, Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar; the US claimed Indian agents had conspired to murder “Khalistani” leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who held an American passport. The death in Army custody of three Kashmiri civilians prompted protests.

India’s Supreme Court upheld the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution and consequent transformation of Jammu and Kashmir state into two Union territories. China and Pakistan did not return chunks of the state that they had seized to either UT. The summer was the hottest ever the world over. Glacial floods nearly washed away the Himalayan state of Sikkim as many Sikkimese celebrated the birth centenary of Chogyal Palden Thondup Namgyal, their last king, who was deposed in 1975 when his kingdom became an Indian state.

Representatives of nearly 200 countries for the first time agreed to shift from fossil fuels and set 2050 as their target. The prospect of an Opposition-mukt Bharat loomed over India as the BJP bagged Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh while BJP presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha ousted 146 Opposition members. India retreated to Bharat as the Opposition’s INDIA alliance -- more chiefs than Indians -- grabbed the headlines. Some chiefs were miffed by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee pushing Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge as the Opposition’s prime ministerial candidate.

A team of “rat-hole” miners who rescued 41 labourers trapped in an underground tunnel in the lower Himalayas for 16 days after all mechanical methods had failed, rejected the government’s Rs 50,000 reward as “paltry”. A 24-year-old student at Prague’s Charles University ran amuck and gunned down 14 people before shooting himself.

The late Pranab Mukherjee, India’s 13th President, warned from beyond the grave: “We are in [the] twilight of democracy but are unfortunately unaware of the impending dangers”. His daughter Sharmistha cited that diary entry in her book, Pranab My Father: A Daughter Remembers. Mukherjee feared for Parliament. Others feared Parliament. Mamata Banerjee was relieved not to be a member any longer. “Thank God I am not an MP now, or I would have been suspended”, she exclaimed.

She had reason to worry. Like the 146 suspended MPs, she too had demanded clarifications from Prime Minister Modi and home minister Amit Shah of the December 13 episode when two men jumped into the Lok Sabha from the visitors’ gallery and set off smoke bombs. Two others were arrested with smoke bombs outside the Parliament building.

Several factors seemed to vest the incident with more than ordinary significance. Too much meaning need not be read into the episode taking place on the 22nd anniversary of a far more deadly event -- the 2001 terrorist attack on Parliament by five gunmen. Nine people were killed as were all five attackers. It may also have been a relatively small matter that as governor of West Bengal, Jagdeep Dhankhar, Rajya Sabha Chairman, had fallen foul of Ms Banerjee and her ruling Trinamul Congress party in almost everything. But the real mystery is: who had organised the intrusion? How were participants recruited? What was their motive?

Thanks to official secretiveness, the answers remain a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, like Churchill’s famous definition of the Soviet Union. Even Soviet reticence wasn’t inexplicable to Churchill who thought that the key was “Russian national interest”.

What national interest was at stake here? Joblessness was the obvious trigger, with the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy reporting 47 million, mainly youth, unemployed, and even Mr Modi admitting that “poverty is the biggest caste”, although shying away from holding a countrywide caste census. But neither he nor the home minister has said a word about the incident, and certainly not in Parliament which BJP politicians appear to shun. Nary a squeak either from BJP MP Pratap Simha, who, intriguingly, signed the pass for the December 13 intruders. Why did he do it?

One of the demonstrators reportedly tweeted: “What India needs is a bomb”. What India is getting this New Year is the grandest temple ever to proclaim that the secular republic is really a proudly Hindu nation, with a brand-new international airport for wealthy Ram bhakts. Any representative of the people who has another order of priorities can be suspended. Democracy provides its own processes for suppressing dissent. Pranab Mukherjee’s warning comes to mind.