2016 in a Flashback: 2017 is around the corner and we are all set to say a goodbye to the year 2016. Another rotation is soon to be completed by planet earth around the Sun and between this period of 365 days, a lot has happened in the world -some good and some bad. 2016 has given many of the memories to remind of and to learn out of them. And for a rewind; we have collected some major happenings of the year in perspective of India and the world. Many major happenings that attracted many of the eyeballs in the field of Indian politics, World Politics, Entertainment Industry and Sports.
So, the following are some major happenings of 2016 that everyone must remind:
Indian Politics
Jat, Patel and Maratha Agitation
This year should be labelled with the agitations demanding the reservation at the state and centre level. Started with violent ‘Jat agitation’ which costs many of the lives and financial loss to the state of Haryana followed by Patel’s in Gujarat and Marathas in Maharashtra. However, authorities controlled well in Gujarat and Marathas never let any political party or leader to come in their peaceful agitation.
Non-Congress Parties Dominated 5 States/UT Elections
This year 4 of the Indian states and 1 Union Territory went under the elections. The states of West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and all the states witness the demolition of Congress. Whereas Mamata Banerjee and Jayalalithaa recorded a sweeping victory in West Benga and Tamil Nadu respectively for the second consecutive time, BJP registered a shattering victory in Assam dethroning Congress from the state after 15 years and in Kerala Leftist Parties(LDF) beats the congress lead UDF.
JNU Controversies
With the start of 2016, Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU), one of the central universities started with the controversies for its several anti-government and anti-national activities. This includes celebrating Afzal Guru’s death anniversary and chanting anti-India slogans followed by burning effigy of PM Modi on Dussehra and ruckus created post one of the students Najeeb went missing and is still not found.
Pathankot and Uri Attack, Indian Surgical Strikes, Worsened Indo-Pak Relations
This year started on a very negative note for the Indo-Pak relations as on the eve of New Year celebrations, Pathankot witnessed a terrorist attack that caused several casualties to Indian Army followed by another terrorist attack in Uri that raised the temper of Indian authorities and India conducted Surgical Strikes across LoC to teach Pakistan and its terrorist a lesson. Post this, a war-like situation was created in both the nations but it didn’t get worse and India succeeds to internationally isolate Pakistan at several diplomatic levels including UN, BRICS and SAARC.
Kashmir Unrest
After Indian authorities neutralised the Kashmir-based Terrorist outfit Hizbul-Mujahideen’s Commander Burhan Wani, the state went under a mourning state for the terrorist who seeks the Kashmir’s independence. And it is followed by strong protests in Kashmir by the separatist leaders and caused a huge blockade and unrest in Kashmir. Many of the Policemen/Army Men and even the common people died during the clash between them.
Karnataka-Tamil Nadu Cauvery Row, Punjab-Haryana SYL
Despite facing a good monsoon this year, several states of India sees a face-off the waters issue. Whereas Karnataka and Tamil Nadu sees social and political protests over the sharing of Cauvery water, Punjab and Haryana sees an ugly exchange of words over Sutlej-Yamuna Link(SYL) following the Supreme Court verdict that went in favour of Haryana.
Manipur Blockade
Naxalism problems raised again in the Indian state of Manipur, Which is still continued for over 50 days and people are seeing a fight between authorities and Naxalists which leads to a blockade and a huge loss the public property.
Kalikho Pul/Jayalalithaa Death
This year also witnessed the deaths of two popular Chief Ministers of State of Arunachal Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Whereas Kalikho Pul, the Arunachal Pradesh found hanging in his house, Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa dies in December following a long suffering from breathing problems. Jayalalithaa was one among the extremely popular chief Minister of the state and it caused a great mourn in the state.
Demonetization
One major economic step that was discussed internationally and faced a huge ruckus in India is demonetizing the older high-value currency notes of Rs 500 and 1000. Several people were in favour of the decision it caused a heavy cash crunch and cash problems to a society of whom are either uneducated or economically poor. This also caused a huge political storm whereas many of the political parties strongly objected the decision and created a political drama. However, slowly-slowly the conditions are getting better but this is said to lead India towards a less cash and digital economy. But the matter of the fact is that this has caused a heavy damage to the Indian growth rate and to the industry.
Entertainment:
Karan-Bipasha/Yuvraj-Hazel Marriage
This year witnessed several celebrity marriages in this year but what made to most of the headline includes the Karan Singh Grover-Bipasha Basu and Cricketer Yuvraj Singh-Hazel Keech. These celebrities got hitched this year and married in a gaga like marriage functions. Many Celebrities were spotted in the marriage from the various field including political, sports and entertainment industry.
Parenting of Shahid-Mira, Kareena-Saif, Harbhajan Singh-Geeta, Allu Arjun
Many of the celebrity couples entered into another level of their marriage life and enter into the parenting life. Celebrity couples like Shahid Kapoor-Mira Rajput, Saif Ali Khan-Kareena Kapoor Khan, Harbhajan Singh-Geeta Basra and south superstar Allu Arjun became proud parents of either of their first or second child.
Breakups/Divorce
Patch-ups and Breakups are pretty common in the entertainment industry. But several breakups doesn’t go well with the audience and made headlines for several good and bad news. This year Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif’s breakup breaks many of the hearts and also was in news for several good and bad reasons. Other than that several celebrity couples are filed for their divorces due to the increasing differences in their respective relationships. Some of the major names out of these celebrities include south star Kamal Hassan-Gautami, Farhan Akhtar, Himesh Reshammiya-Komal and most prominent one Arbaaz Khan-Malaika Arora Khan.
Release Gaga for Sultan, MS Dhoni, Dangal
This year was not that good for the cinema and especially for many of the newcomers. Many of the movies got a flop label with their names. But stars like Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan were really good this year. And the shocking entry among them is Sushant Singh Rajput, whose movie MS Dhoni shattered many of the Box-office Collections. Other than that Salman Khan’s Sultan ruled the box-office and recorded a massive collection. Aamir Khan’s Dangal has all the praises from every corner of the country and this is also converting into the profit for the movie and is doing extremely well on the Box-office. This has also been a dream year for Akshay Kumar – whose Airlift, Housefull 3 and Rustom all three movies entered into the 100-Cr club and collected appreciations for his work.
Pakistani Actors Ban
Post the Terrorist attacks in India, several voices raised to ban the Pakistani artists in Indian movies and this soon turned out to be a storm and this also caused problems with the release of movies like Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Shah Rukh-Alia starrer Dear Zindagi and SRK’s upcoming movie Raees. However, for the time, Pakistani actors are banned from working in Indian movies and filmmakers are under the radar for that.
World Politics:
Brexit
Brexit or Britain’s exit from European Union (EU) is one of the most shocking events that shocked the entire world even including the EU and Britain itself. The referendum was conducted in mid-2016 asking the people from the UK nations whether they seek Britain’s exit from the European Union or not? And the final verdict comes as YES.
Post the referendum, Britain’s PM David Cameron announced his resignation as he was opposing the Brexit. Theresa May sworn in as the new PM of the UK. And the differences between Britain and EU nations increased post this as EU is in a hurry to kick Britain out of the EU as soon as possible. Not just EU and Britain, Scotland – which is also a part of UK – was also opposing the Brexit but when it happened, the voices comes out from Scotland exiting from the UK as well. This also caused new major economic revisions.
Colombia Peace Pact with FARC
Colombia, as a nation is fighting with the terrorist outfit or to say a civil war with the rebellion group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) for many decades. This year has marked a historical step by Colombian government with FARC to maintain the peace in the region. Earlier, a referendum was conducted to ask people of Colombia whether they want a peace pact to be signed with FARC or not. But the people denied the pact and then Colombian president didn’t give up on the pact.
He revised the pact and then passed it with the help of the government authorities and signed the peace pact with FARC. For Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos’ efforts to maintain peace in the region, he was also referred for the Nobel Peace Prize.
France Attacks
What is terrorising the most to the people of European countries? Well, they are now scared of the migrants or to say Muslim migrants who were once welcomed warmly by the people of these nations. But that soon turned out to be a blunder as this year, the European countries face several terrorist attacks and most of the terrorists were from the migrants.
Several nations including France Germany and Belgium faced some really worse terrorist attacks especially France. The Nice and Paris attacks are the prime examples that strike to our mind when we talk about terrorist attacks in France. These attacks created a negative perception about the migrants and now they are strongly condemning the migration policy of their respective countries.
Fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria
ISIS has been a headache for the entire world and especially for several world leaders like Barack Obama. Russia is strongly supporting Syria and Iraq in eliminating ISIS from the region whereas EU and US are strongly opposing Russia’s aggressive fight in the region claiming that many innocent lives are also been claimed in this.
This also caused some strong verbal reaction from both the sides but Russia is not stepping back from the fight and helping the local military. A ceasefire attempt has also been failed between US and Russia in Syria and Iraq and now again Russia is aggressively fighting against the ISIS. However, this is not even that easy as UN, EU has threatened to propose sanctions against Russia if it didn’t stop its actions and involvement in Syria.
South China Sea Verdict
One of the most important decisions came out from the international tribunal court this year includes its verdict on the South China Sea. From decades, China is claiming that the entire South China Sea region should be under its authorities and it claims it as its own territory and reacts very aggressively if some other nations claim any part of it.
On the petition filed by Philippines and Japan for claiming its territories in the South China Sea, the international court found that China doesn’t hold the right to claim the whole South China Sea as its own and other nations can also use this territory for their trade purposes.
However, China is still strongly backing its claims and not let any other nation to speak against their claims. Also, the US or any other nation is not ready to speak against China looking at its strong international influence. However, coming days will not be going to be easy on this issue as international politics is heating up over the issue.
Thailand/Uzbekistan/Cuba leaders died
This year, several international leaders also passed away. To start with Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej passed away after a long suffering. The nation has announced the one year of national mourn on his demise. Also, the Uzbekistan President Islam Karimov, who ruled the country for more than two decades also dies this year.
But the former Cuba president and revolutionary leader Fidel Castro also passed away this year. He is reminded for his revolution against the United State’s domination in Cuba and also defied it for several decades during his presidency tenure.
Trump Victory
2016 already brought many of the surprise and shocks and most probably will end with the biggest shock. And that is Donald Trump is elected US President. This came out as a shocker for the world, no one had predicted this to happen and no one even had thought of. Trump has been in news and headlines for all the wrong reasons including being an anti-Muslims, anti-migrants, anti-women, but still, he succeeds.
Donald Trump, the Republicans President candidate beat the democratic candidate Hilary Clinton with a sweep somehow. Every Political analyst was predicting Hilary’s victory but people of the United States emerged as the ultimate winner and Donald Trump is now the President-elect of the US. However, protests emerged out post his victory and heavy protests conducted in Washington and California as people seems not ready to accept Trump as their President.
Sports:
India vs Bangladesh in ICC T20 World Cup 2016
It could have been the India vs Pakistan’s match in this list but India vs Bangladesh match steals the limelight and was heartbeat skipping match. India beats Bangladesh with just 1 Run and Hardik Pandya emerged out of that match. In this year’s ICC T20 World Cup held in India, the hosts and Pakistan had a face-off but that resulted in an easy victory for Indians whereas earlier when they meet in the Asia Cup, it was a tough fight there.
However, India vs Bangladesh match in the ICC World T20 World Cup face-off is the moment that will be written in golden words in Cricket history. Check out some glimpses here:
Carlos Braithwaite’s performance in finale
As India fails to make it to the finals of the ICC T20 World Cup losing to West Indies in the Semis, the England faces the West Indians in the final match of the tournament. The match was full of entertainment and ups & downs. But the West Indies emerged as the ultimate winner of the prestigious trophy for the second time.
Carlos Braithwaite, the new player in the West Indian squad played the match-winning innings and hit four sixes in four balls of the final over and helps the Caribbean’s to emerge as victorious.
Take a look at his innings:
PV Sindhu’s Silver/Sakshi Malik’s Bronze at Rio Olympics and 4 medals at Paralympic 2016.
Rio Olympics 2016 didn’t go well with India as Indians failed to convert their performance into the medals and India only gets two medals. Wrestler Sakshi Malik wins the first medal for India and clinched a bronze.
The best performance by an Indian in Olympics this year goes to PV Sindhu, who reached the finals of women singles and was a surprise package in the games. She, however, lost to Carolina Marin in the finals but succeeds to win a silver for his country.
At Paralympics 2016, India gets four medals including three gold medals. Meiyappan, Deepa, Devendra and Varun Bhati gets the medals fro India.
Aditi Ashok Wins European Tour and Qatar Tour
Aditi Ashok, the Indian woman golfer performed well at the Olympics as well but that was not good enough to get a medal for her. But then her emergence started as she becomes the first Indian woman to win the Europe Tour followed by Qatar Tour. However, she missed a chance at Dubai Tour to make the count to 3 but she made India proud.
Indian Wins Kabaddi World Cup:
India hosts the Kabaddi World Cup and all the matches were hosted by Ahmedabad and many international teams participated in the tournament except Pakistan. The tournament didn’t open on a good note for India as the hosts lost to the South Korea in the opening game. But from there, they played well and made it to the finals.
India meets Iran in the finals and the fight in the final was nail-biting close. Till the very last moments India was lacking behind Iran but in the last moments India emerged and played some beautiful game and beats Iran in the finals to keep the title with it.
India Wins Junior Hockey World Cup
India again hosts the Junior Hockey World Cup this year and this time the state of Uttar Pradesh hosts the tournament. Many teams participated in the tournament except Pakistan due to some of its issues with FIH. Indians stayed on the top of their group and also remains unbeatable in the entire tournament.
Indian reached the finals beating Australia in the Semi-finals and met Belgium in the final and beats them too with 2-1 to claim the title after 15 years. And with this, India becomes the Junior Hockey World Champion.
Karun Nair’s 300 against England
Coming back to the Cricket, England Tour of India didn’t go well with the visitors and Indian beats the England by 4-0 in the 5-matches Test series. Many of the things went well for Indians during this tournament and newcomers performed for the team.
But Karun Nair takes away the limelight from all others with his triple-ton in the final test match. Karun’s unbeatable 303* helped Indian to make their best score ever in an innings. Also, Karu Nair joined Virendra Sehwag in the list of Indians to run a triple century. Take a look at his innings:
A triple hundred for @karun126 followed by the declaration from #TeamIndia skipper. India 759/7d, lead #ENG(477) by 282 runs pic.twitter.com/q18MnGeo59
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 19, 2016
That is it from our pick of the best/major moments of the year among the different categories of Indian Politics, World Politics, Entertainment Industry and Sports. If you like it or not or want to give us your feedback, you can write to us in the comment box below.
