Yearender 2021: Top 10 events that grabbed the nation’s attention

1 First Covid19 vaccines and the lost dead A fortnight after Covaxin and Covishield were approved by the Central Drugs and Standards Committee India began the worldrsquos largest vaccination drive on January 16 Within three months the second wave devastated the country and by April 30 India was reporting over four lakh new cases and 3500 deaths a dayAerial picture ofburning pyres of victims who lost their lives due to Covid19 at a cremation ground in New Delhi Pic AFPThe factors for the rise were aplenty Kumbh Mela election campaigns sport events like the IPL festivals and weddings Amid oxygen shortage and a crumbling medical infrastructure India hit a new low with two lakh deaths in May The floating bodies in the Ganga and bright orange flames from mass cremations however told a different story Many international news publications believed that the number of dead was severely undercounted According to a report in NPR an additional 3447 million people died during the pandemic in India over 10 times the official death toll of 414 lakhA farmer walks past a graffiti on a hut at a protest site in Singhu Pic AFP2 Farmersrsquo journey from violence to victoryThe year which saw the culmination of perhaps the longest protest India has ever seen began with the Supreme Court staying the implementation of the three farm laws On January 26 what began as a peaceful parade as tens and thousands of farmers rode on tractors to Delhi turned violent as some sections deviated from the assigned route and stormed the Red Fort The day was marred with clashes with the police leaving one dead and several police personnel injuredOn December 9 farmers called off their agitation after the Centre sent them a letter accepting most of the demands Earlier on November 15 Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised address had apologised to the farmers and announced the repeal of the three laws A fortnight later Parliament passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill 2021 The Centre also agreed to form a committee on Minimum Support Price and withdraw all cases against the farmersA woman checks the website of Israelmade Pegasus spyware at an office in the Cypriot capital Nicosia Pic AFP3 Pegasus papers leakOn July 18 a leaked database of Israeli surveillance technology firm NSO Group which was accessed by a Parisbased media nonprofit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International was shared with 17 media groups from 10 countries The database included the list of government clients to which Pegasus a spyware was sold In India The Wire had the documents and revealed that over 300 Indians were put under surveillance through the spyware Prominent among them were Congress leader Rahul Gandhi political strategist Prashant Kishor The Wirersquos founder and journalist Siddharth Varadarajan student activist Umar Khalid tribal rights activist Stan Swamy among othersThe logo of Pandora Papers in LavausurLoire western France Pic AFP4 Pandora Papers scandalOn October 3 the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists started publishing reports based on a leak of about 119 million documents from 14 financial services companies around the world The documents pertained to how prominent people amassed wealth in secret offshore assets Indians from the list included industrialist Anil Ambani fugitive businessman Nirav Modi and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar among others On October 4 it was announced that a MultiAgency Group MAG headed by the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes will monitor investigation into the Pandora Papers leak On November 16 it was reported that the MAG is supervising dispatch of notices via the Income Tax Department to ldquomostrdquo of the citizens named in the leakAir India returns to the Tatas after 68 years Pic AFP5 Tatas take over Air IndiaOn October 8 the Tata Group got government nod to acquire 100 per cent stakes of Air India for Rs 18000 crore Of the total amount 15 per cent will go to the government and the rest in clearing the debt While the company will pay off Rs 15300 crore and an additional Rs 2700 crore of the total debt amounting to Rs 61562 crore the government even after generating Rs 14718 crore from the assets left with it will still have a debt portion to the tune of Rs 28844 crore left to pay back The airlines returns to the Tata fold after 68 years The company was earlier called Tata airlines and was nationalized in 1953 The Tatas are set to take over the national carrier by January 23 2022Activists of Indiarsquos youth Congress burn an effigy of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a protest near Home Minister Amit Shahs residence in New Delhi Pic AFP6 Lakhimpur Kheri violenceOn October 3 2021 three cars rammed into a crowd of protesting farmers in Uttar Pradeshrsquos Lakhimpur Kheri One of the SUVs belonged to Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra and it was reported that his son Ashish Mishra was in one of cars Four farmers and a journalist were killed in the incident and three moremdashAshishrsquos driver and two BJP workersmdashdied in subsequent clashes Ashish along with three others were arrested a week later An SIT which was formed on the orders of the Supreme Court stated in its report that the incident was a lsquopreplanned conspiracyrsquo The report caused much uproar in Parliament as Opposition members stormed into the Well at the Lok Sabha and demanded the ousting of Union Minister MishraThe news of introduction of the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021 led to panic selling and fall in prices of cryptocurrencies Pic AFP7 Cryptocurrency law and panicked investorsThe Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021 which seeks to ldquoprohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India with certain exceptionsrdquo and ldquocreate a facilitative framework for the creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of Indiardquo was one of the 26 bills that the government had planned to introduce in the Winter Session of Parliament but was later deferred The news of its introduction in one of the biggest crypto markets in the world caused panic selling and led to a fall in the prices of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum by as much as 15 per cent Last year too government had planned to introduce a bill but it was later scrapped and a committee was formed to discuss it furtherTMC supporters celebrate after Mamata Banerjee won the bypoll to Bhabanipur seat Pic AFP8 Mamata sweeps Bengal BJP retains AssamThe Mamata Banerjeeled All India Trinamool Congress won the West Bengal elections in a third consecutive win While Banerjee singlehandedly drove her party to victory by winning 215 out of 292 seats she lost her constituency Nandigram to BJPrsquos Suvendu Adhikari She later won the Bhabanipur constituency in the byelection by 58832 votes The BJP became the primary Opposition in the state with 77 seats and the Congress and Left parties drew a blank Postpoll violence however rocked West Bengal as BJP and TMC workers clashed party offices were burned and homes lootedAlthough the BJP lost West Bengal it retained Assam for the second time in a row The party won 60 of the 126 seats and its allies Asom Gana Parishad and United Peoples Party Liberal won nine and six respectively Receiving its biggest blow in the northeastern state the Congress failed to win a single seatSupporters of Socialist Unity Centre of India SUCI carry an effigy of Home Minister Amit Shah as they protest over the killing of 14 civilians by Indian security forces in Nagaland Pic AFP9 A botchedup operation in NagalandOn the evening of December 4 a unit of 21 Para Special Forces opened fire on a truck on the TiruOting road in Mon town in Nagaland which was carrying villagers and mine workers It was reported that this was after a tipoff about a possible movement of insurgents Six villagers all of them mine workers returning home were killed in the botchup operation which led to a clash between angry villagers and the army and subsequently eight more civilians and a soldier were killedThe army apologised for the incident and initiated an inquiry even as the state saw massive protest rallies and the clamour to repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act AFSPA grew On December 20 the Nagaland Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution demanding the repeal of AFSPAA coffin containing the mortal remains of CDS General Bipin Rawat being transported to the funeral site in Delhi Pic AFP10 CDS General Bipin Rawat killed in chopper crashOn December 8 Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat his wife Madhulika and 11 other defence personnel died when their helicopter crashed in Tamil Nadursquos Coonoor The Mil Mi17 helicopter was on its way to Defence Services Staff College in Wellington where General Rawat was to address the faculty and student officers The helicopter took off from Sulur Air Force Station near Coimbatore at 1148 am and was scheduled to reach its destination by 1215 pm Group Captain Varun Singh the only lone survivor of the crash succumbed to injuries on December 15 while being treated at a Bengaluru military hospital Defence Minister Rajnath Singh announced a triservices inquiry into the incident