Top 10 big events of India in 2012

New Delhi: As the 2012 is about to say sayonara and 2013 is about to step in, a flashback to ten big events in India during the year. Shiv Sena lost its founder Bal Thackeray, Bollywood lost Rajesh Khanna, Yash Chopra, Dara Singh and Jaspal Bhatti, Arvind Kejriwal floated his Aam Aadmi Party, 2G scam accused A Raja came out on bail, and the year ended with the most gruesome gangrape in recent times triggering violent protests in the Indian capital.1. The bus gangrape that shook India:On the night of December 16, a 23-year-old paramedic boarded a private bus with her boyfriend at Munirka, Delhi, and to her horror, found six persons waiting inside the moving bus ready to rape her. The rapists, including driver Ram Singh, beat up her friend, and the girl was gangraped on the back seat of the bus by all the six people, and they brutalized her private parts with an iron rod. The two were then thrown out of the moving bus at Mahipalpur. Delhi Police rounded up all the six, but a shocked and stunned India reacted. Thousands of protesters came to the streets in Delhi and other metros. There were protests at the seat of power, Raisina Hill and at India Gate, which degenerated into violence.Ultimately, the govt woke up from its slumber and is on course to bring a stringent law against rapists and molesters in the New Year. 2. Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal part ways Gandhian Anna Hazare who had sat on a fast in Mumbai towards the end of 2011 drawing poor crowds, parted ways with his close associate Arvind Kejriwal, after the latter sat on a fast in Delhi in March this year, but the government did not relent. Ultimately, Kejriwal and his associates decided to enter active politics, and towards the end of the year, floated the Aam Aadmi Party. Kejriwal began to make sensational expose almost every week,over Robert Vadra's land deals, Nitin Gadkari's shell companies, and offshore black money accounts. Later he concentrated on Delhi's local issues like higher electricity rates with an eye on the forthcoming assembly polls. On the other hand, Hazare confining himself to his village Ralegan Siddhi, decided to tour the country to “awaken” the people about corruption. 3. Year of scams The 2G spectrum scam involving politicians and government officials had seen politicians like A. Raja and DMK MP Kanimozhi in jail, but in 2012, with the Supreme Court quashing all 122 licences on February 2, the accused got a chance to come out on bail. A. Raja, the Communications minister, who had granted 2G spectrum licences on first come-first served basis came out on bail on May 15. On Feb 5, the CBI court dismissed Subramanian Swamy's petition to make senior minister P Chidambaram accused in the 2G case. Towards the end of the year, when the 2G spectrum was re-auctioned, it came a whimper, with the Opposition alleging that a cartel of service providers was hand in gloves with the government.4. Coalgate scam With the country yet to digest the 2G scam and the Commonwealth Games scam in 2011, came the coal allocation scam nicknamed Coalgate. It was a political scandal relating to government's allocation of the nation's coal deposits to public sector entities (PSEs) and private companies. The CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) accused the Government of India of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during the period 2004-2009. The Opposition brought about a deadlock in Parliament demanding the Prime Minister's resignation, as the PM was himself Coal Minister during that period. The government however did not relent.5. Karnataka ministers caught watching porn inside assembly On February 8, three BJP Karnataka ministers were caught watching hardcore porn inside the assembly. MCC Patil and Lakshman Savadi were caught watching obscene video on their mobile phones on while the Assembly was in session. A day after the incident caused huge embarrassment to the BJP government, all the three tainted ministers were summoned to the party office and were asked to submit their resignation by the then Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda.6. Agni-V, India's first ICBM test-firedIndia on April 19 test-fired for the first time its most-ambitious strategic missile, the over 5,000-km range Agni-V, in a bid to join the super exclusive ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) club that counts just US, Russia,China, France and UK as its members. 7. 2012 Assam violence and the exodus thereafterIn July 2012 violence broke out between indeigenous Bodos and Bengali speaking Muslims in Assam's Bodoland area. 77 people were killed and over 400,000 people were displaced. They were given shelter in 270 relief camps, after being displaced from almost 400 villages. Soon after, some nefarious elements circulated SMSes and MMSes in Bangalore and some other southern cities that North-Eastern people would be targeted after Eid. There was a huge exodus of North-eastern people from Bangalore and other southern cities, but the rumours were found baseless.8. The worst power outage in world history The entire north India was plunged into the worst power crisis in world history on July 29 and 30 throwing normal life out of gear for several hours in eight states with collapse of the northern grid. Nearly 620 million people were affected because of the power outage. Surprisingly, the Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde was promoted by the Prime Minister to the prized portfolio of Home. He was also made Leader of Lok Sabha, after Pranab Mukherjee resigned to be elected President of India on July 22, Hamid Ansari was re-elected vice-president.9. Ajmal Kasab hangedThe lone Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab caught alive after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, was hanged to death at the Yerawada central prison on Nov 21 morning, less than a week before the fourth anniversary of the carnage. India offered to hand over his body to his relatives, but Pakistan refused. Kasab was buried inside the jail compound. 10. Modi becomes Gujarat CM for third time Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led his party BJP to another landslide win, securing 115 seats in the assembly elections, two less than the 117 seats he had won last time. Soon after he won, Modi said, he would now speak more often in Hindi rather than Gujarati, indicating that he has his eyes on the Centre. Several BJP leaders publicly said they wanted to see Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate, but the party top brass was tightlipped.