1962 Indo-China War

Sino-Indian war was a sensitive incident in the history of India since independence. Pt. Nehru ‘s aspiration of establishing strong bilateral relations with China were marred by the commencement of war from 20th October, 1962 to 21st November, 1962. India was taken aback by the betrayal at the time when it reinforced its relation in the form of Hindi-Chini bhai- bhai.

1971 Indo-Pak War

Indo-Pak war in 1971 is also called Bangladesh Liberation war as it concluded with the birth of a new nation-Bangladesh, earlier called East Pakistan. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi hailed the people of Bangladesh in their hour of triumph. The war was a victory of Indian sub-continent and also symbolized the dominance of Indian military.

JP movement against corruption

An ardent follower of Gandhiji and a Marxist, Jayaprakash Narayan raised his voice against corruption in 1974. He is truly titled as ‘Loknayak’- People’s leader. He provided common people a platform to voice their opinions against the problems faced by them and it led to the mass movement that changed the history of Indian politics.

Emergency

India went through politically turbulent times during the emergency when Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi was heading the nation in 1975. This was a “grinding halt” to the Indian democracy and lasted till 21 months and ended in March 1977.

First non-Congress government

Post emergency, elections were held in March 1977 and this time, for the first time in the Indian politics, thirty year rule of Congress was swept away by Janata Party. It was followed by the appointment of Morarji Desai as the first non-Congress Prime Minister of India.

The era of Sanjay Gandhi

Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of Indira Gandhi was considered the political heir to his mother and is supposed to have played a major part when emergency was declared in India. It is said that during emergency he was virtually in command of the country along with his friends, especially Bansi Lal. He died at a young age on 23 June 1980.

Indira bounces back to power

After facing a downfall, Congress again regained momentum in 1979 elections and rose to power. This may be due to the reason that Indira Gandhi drove sympathy from public as she underwent through trials and there were arrest orders against her. Second reason could be the internal cracks amid the Janata Party members which could not sustain their power for too long.

Operation Blue Star

Operation Blue Star was an operation by the Indian army to remove separatists from the Golden Temple in Amritsar from June 3 to June 6, 1984. It was ordered by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. The insurgents were led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, accused of amassing huge amounts of weapons in the Gurudwara.

Assassination of Indira Gandhi

Four months after Operation Blue Star, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, on 31 October 1984, in what is viewed as an act of vengeance. Following her assassination, more than 5000 Sikhs were killed in anti-sikh riots in India, especially in Delhi. She was cremated on November 3.

Rajiv Gandhi becomes PM

Rajiv Gandhi was the sixth and the youngest Prime Minister of India at the age of 40. He won a landslide victory in the general elections in 1984, amassing the largest ever majority in Parliament.

VP Singh becomes the PM

VP Singh was the seventh PM of India. Singh held office for slightly less than a year, from 2 December 1989 to 10 November 1990. He was instrumental in the formation of the Janta Dal (JD). Later a federation of JD with various regional parties came into being, called the National Front. The National Front fought 1989 elections and earned a simple majority in Lok Sabha with VP Singh becoming the PM. He passed away on 27 November 2008.

Mandal Commission protests, 1990

Protests against Mandal Commission report by anti-reservationists set the nation on fire in 1990. The protests closed roads, highways, transportation services, government services, schools and businesses. The commission sought to bring into effect reservation for OBCs in government jobs. It led to the fall of VP Singh’s government at the centre.

Rajiv Gandhi assassinated

Rajiv was assassinated by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam group while on a campaign trail at Sriperumbudur, on 21 May, 1991 as an aftermath of his sending the Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka and the alleged IPKF atrocities against Sri Lankan Tamils. Rajiv Gandhi was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1991.

Era of liberalisation

Prior to 1991, India followed a mixed economy module and the control of critical industries was with the government. In 1991, India marched towards liberalisation and globalisation. Liberalisation allowed the private sector to run those activities which were restricted earlier only to public sector while the globalisation helped in Integrating the Indian economy with the world economy.

LK Advani’s Rath Yatra

LK Advani embarked on a Rath Yatra in 1990 and is largely credited to have increased the Bhartiya Janta Party’s votebank from 2 parliamentary seats in 1984 to 85 seats in 1989 to 120 in the 1991 general elections. His Rath Yatra was undertaken to mobilize ‘karsevaks’ to rebuild a Ram temple in Ayodhya. Starting from Somnath in Gujarat, it was brought to a halt by the CM of Bihar, Laloo Prasad Yadav.

Babri demolition

On December 6, 1992, the disputed Babri Masjid structure at Ayodhya was demolished by Kar Sevaks, led by prominent right wing organisations dealing a severe blow to pluralism and secularism of the tolerant Indian society.

AB Vajpayee becomes PM

Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the eleventh Prime Minister of India. He served as the PM thrice - including brief first term of 13 days in 1996 and two terms from 1998 to 2004. He headed the largest coalition government in the centre. Vajpayee has since retired from active politics due to ill-health.

Sonia Gandhi becomes Congress president

In an effort to revive the party`s sagging fortunes, Sonia Gandhi joined the Congress party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and became party leader in 1998. She led the party to victory in the 2004 elections. Since then, she has served as the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha. In September 2010, on being re-elected for the fourth time, she became the longest serving president in the history of the Congress party.

Manmohan Singh, the first Sikh PM of India

Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current PM of India and the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. Singh as the Finance Minister of India, under the leadership of PV Narasimha Rao from 1991 to 1996, is credited with carrying out the economic reforms of the country.

Scam hit UPA II

The UPA II completed two years in power on May 22nd, 2011 amid slew of corruption scandals and public disenchantment over rising prices. It was ridden with an unending saga of corruption, from 2G spectrum, Commonwealth Games, Adarsh housing society case and (ISRO) spectrum-band scandals."

Anna Hazare’s fight for a strong Lokpal Bill

Anna Hazare began his fast unto death on 5 April 2011 at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to press for the demand to form a joint committee of the representatives of the government and the civil society to draft a stronger anti-corruption bill. He later called off his fast but his struggle is on with a deadlock between the government and civil society’s version of the Lokpal Bill.

By Preeti Panwar & Manisha Singh