10 big events that Indians would never like to be repeated

New Delhi: Since its independence in 1947, India has gone through several vicissitudes. There has been many pleasant moments too in recent Indian history.These moments include World Cup cricket wins, historic victories in 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars, the first conquest of Mt Everest by Tenzing Norgay with Edmund Hillary, India's Pokharan tests, the merger of ex-princely states and Sikkim in Indian Union and Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma in space.While we cherish the good memories, the remembrance of unfortunate events make all of us feel uneasy. Nonetheless, we should learn from those bitter memories and here is a list of 10 such unfortunate events: 1. Kargil War, 1999It was a conflict that could have been avoided had not India let its defences down in Kargil amidst the bonhomie of India-Pakistan friendship. Pakistan stabbed us in the back by infiltrating its soldiers of Northern Light Infantry disguised as fake Kashmiri mujahedin into the heights overlooking Kargil in 1999. These soldiers sneaked into fortified Indian bunkers left unguarded by our jawans during winter, and when the snow thawed, our jawans in April found Pakistanis occuping the heights, and poised to occupy Kargil.The three month long battle saw the use of Mirage fighter bombers by IAF to bomb Pakistani soldiers, and the brave Indian jawans fought an uphill battle to clear the heights of invaders. 527 Indian army jawans were martyred and 1,363 jawans were wounded, while Pakistan lost over 4,000 soldiers and militants (according to PM Nawaz Sharif). . India recovered almost all the major posts of Kargil and won the battle, but at a heavy cost. 2. Indo China war, 1962 The 1962 India-China war was one which should never have been fought. The ill-equipped Indian army suffered the following casualties: 1,383 killed, 1,047 wounded, 1,696 missing, 3,968 jawans captured. The Chinese PLA (People's Liberation Army) suffered the following casualties: 722 killed, 1,697 wounded.The main reason of this war was the dispute over sovereignty of Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh border regions then called NEFA (North East Frontier Agency). China occupied almsot the entire Aksai Chin and large chunks in Arunachal Pradesh. Taking advantage of an undemarcated border, the Chinese laid claims on Aksai Chin and NEFA. As Indian and Chinese governments could not reach agreement on disputed territories along the 3,225-kilometer-long border, the Chinese launched simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line on October 20, 1962. It was only after the Chinese declared unilateral ceasefire in the face of opposition from the US, that the war ended with India licking its wounds. For the first time, the Indian defence establishment understood the need for modernising its armed forces. 3. Gujarat Earthquake, 2000 This natural disaster hit Gujarat on 26th January, 2001 at 8.46 am and lasted for 2 minutes. By the time the 7.6 Richter scale quake tremors ended, there were more than 20,000 deaths while 167,000 were injured.Nearly, 400,000 homes were devastated. The state recovered 10 years after the natural disaster. 4. Uttarakhand tragedy, 2013 The huge cloudburst caused flash floods and landslides that struck Uttarakhand from 14 June to 17 June, 2013. More than 5,700 people, mostly pilgrims to Kedarnath and Badrinath, were assumed dead.More than 1, 00,000 pilgrims were trapped in the valleys leading to Kedarnath shrine. Till date, the bodies of most of the pilgrims are yet to be traced. The flash foods in Bhagirathi river devastated the entire town of Kedarnath, but surprisingly the historic Kedarnath shrine was saved by a huge boulder that blocked the gushing flood water. 5. Tsunami, 2004 With the magnitude of 9.1–9.3, it was the third largest earthquake of the world recorded ever in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Almost 227,898 people died in the tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean rim countries of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Maldives.The earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. Experts say the earthquake that caused tsunami was so powerful that its impact can be equated to the energy of 23,000 Hiroshima-type atomic bombs. The huge waves of tsunami killed lakhs of people in South India, Sri Lanka, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 6. Anti Sikh riots, 1984 One of the most brutal communal riots of the nation, nearly 8,000 Sikhs were killed following the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. The riots went on for three continuous days in Delhi, Kanpur and Bokaro and the Sikh community was the worst affected. Most of the perpetrators of the anti-Sikh riots are yet to be brought to book. 7. Partition of India, 1947 August 15, 1947 witnessed the end of British colonial era in the jewel in the crown - India. It was a triumph that was savioured after centuries of foreign rule, but the dawn of freedom came with the open, gaping wounds of Partition.The northwestern and eastern predominantly Muslim sections of India became Pakistan, while the central, western and southern Hindu majority section became the Republic of India.The border between the two new countries were not announced until 17th August, 1947.Millions of families on both sides of Radcliffe line were displaced. Lakhs of people were killed, thousands of women were raped, and millions were rendered homeless, as entire families were annihiliated by marauding mobs thirsting for blood in the wake of Partition.The border was created under the supervision of Sir Cyril Radcliffe, a London barrister who was given only five weeks to draw the new borders. The hurriedly implemented Partition led to scars that never healed in the minds of people living in both India and Pakistan, 67 years after the massacres.8. Bhopal gas tragedy, 1984 The Bhopal gas leak killed nearly 25,000 people and is said to be one of the worst industrial disasters of the world.This tragic incident took place in the Union Carbide subsidiary pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal, when the deadly methyl iso-cyanate (MIC) leaked in the dead of night due to a faulty valve and affected thousands of people across the city.Thousands of people ran out of Bhopal to escape death, and those that couldn't, in the immediate vicinity of the factory, either died, or were doomed to live the life of invalids.Even after three decades of this disaster, the survivors suffer from breathing trouble and other ailments.9. Power blackout, 2012 It was one of the worst power blackout in the history of India, with 28 states drowned in darkness as electricity supply failed.Traffic lights went out, trains were stuck, and offices were shut, when three of the country's five electricity grids failed at lunchtime.First to fail was India's northern grid, which had also collapsed the previous day leaving an estimated 350 million people in the dark for up to 14 hours. It was quickly followed by the eastern grid, which includes Kolkata, then the north-eastern grid.More than 700 million people were affected by the power blackout that hampered work and life. The power minister then was Sushilkumar Shinde, who was immediately promoted to the post of Home Minister by the UPA government at the Centre. 10. Emergency, 1975-77 The worst years for citizens, specially journalists, when Indira Gandhi, to maintain her supremacy imposed a state of emergency on June 25, 1975. The Constitution was suspended and basic rights of freedom of speech and expression were curbed till early 1977, when Indira Gandhi went in for general elections in the false hope that her party would retain power. Thousands of political activists, including major political leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Jayaprakash Narayan, Morarji Desai, L K Advani and others were imprisoned. Censorship was imposed on the print media throughout India. The nationwide suppression of people's rights, coupled with unbridled police atrocities in the guise of enforcing Sanjay Gandhi's programme of forced sterilisation, led to widespread revulsion against the Congress party. In the 1977 general elections, both Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi were defeated from Rae Bareli and Amethi respectively, and the Congress party was almost decimated in almost all the states north of the Vindhyas. The Janata Party government led by Morarji Desai as prime minister came to power.