What A Way To End The Year (2016)

Now that the celebrations of New Year are formally over and the dusts have settled down its time to look back at 2016. As it happens with every year that passes by, even 2016 passed with some events which left a few scars and also gave some reasons to feel proud and brought some smiles on our faces.

The year started with bloodshed as militants first attacked our Air Force base in Pathankot, Punjab in the month of Jan. Feb followed with another militant siege in Pulwama.

The summer month gave us some surprises where Legislative Assembly Elections were held in the state of Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and Union territory Puducherry. The results were surprising as there were no incumbency effect in the states of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and the ruling party won with a comfortable margin in both the states. In Assam it was BJP which was chosen by the people of the state and Puduchery chose to go with Congress.

June brought the reasons to feel proud as an Indian when ISRO sent 20 satellites in space on PSLV-XL. It was a moment of definite pride for all the Indians. And by the end of June we had covered first half of the year and were waiting to see how the second half shapes up.

July August and September some more of political activities and rise of cross border tensions. 99.99% of Indians were expecting the last two months of the year to be going without experiencing any earth shattering events to happen. But our Prime Minister Narendra Modi had other plans in his mind. On November 8th at 8 PM he took his first big step against corruption and black money. He announced the big step of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes in India. He knew that the road ahead would not be easy and he will have to be strong in the decision he had taken. There was a political unrest in the country and almost all the political parties were united to oppose this move. I am saying almost all the parties as a few did support the move but were against the mode of action and said that planning could have been much better.

As per the political class the common man has suffered the most after this decision was taken. On the contrary it is the common man who supported this big move of our Prime Minister. I am a common man and I am amongst many who feel that this move was justified. No planning can be fool proof especially when it is of such a large magnitude. There will be minor faults and hiccups. It is very easy to comment sitting on the other side of the fence that the activity could have been planned better and if we were there we would have done things in a better way. People in the political circle ask whether this move was necessary. I also saw a story making moves in social circle that in order to catch the crocodile we dried the pond and the fishes were killed. But till now there were only speculations of the size of the crocodiles. No one knew the size and strength of these crocodiles. After drying up the pond we have come to see the actual face of these so called crocodiles. Yes the fishes had to go through some tough times but the fishes were ready to pay that price in order to clean the murky muddy water.

Modi practically put his political career on line. He knew that if he failed then all the parties will pounce on him. But he still went ahead with his decision. Many people would have thought about the results in next general elections and would have restrained from taking the bold step. But our prime minister has openly stated that even if he loses because of this step he has no regrets as he wants India to be clean. Wow! Modi sir what a way to end the year. As a common man I salute you and wish that you get a second term as the prime minister of India. India and Indians need you.