A lot can happen in a decade. But controversies are very peculiar in India. It hasn’t all been positive… but it hasn’t all been negative either.
India, the melting pot of religions, cultures and identities also see social, political and economical challeneges that impacts its faith and beliefs and traditions. We took a look back at the most controversial things that happened in the decade.
2015 Guru Granth Sahib desecration controversy
The first incident was reported in 2015. The Bir (a copy) of the Guru Granth Sahib went missing from Burj Jawahar Singhwala on June 1, 2015. Pages of the holy book were found scattered in the streets of Bargari village on the Kotkapura-Bathinda highway. It triggered mass protests and the police opened fire on protesters near Bargari. Two people died in the incident.
Again in April 2017, seven scriptures of the Guru Granth Sahib were found burnt at the gurudwara in Aulakh village in Muktsar Sahib. The jathedar (high priest) of the Akal Takht, Gurbachan Singh grilled the gurdwara management committee who claimed it happened due to a short circuit.
https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/5-times-indian-army-struck-fear-into-the-nations-enemiesGodman Gurmeet Singh Ram Rahim controversy
Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Insan head of Dera Sacha Sauda, he is a convicted rapist and murderer of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2017.
His Dera Sacha Sauda, the website of which still features Singh prominently, describes itself as a "selfless socio-spiritual organization" and has ashrams across 10 states and union territories in India and claims to have millions of followers worldwide. In 2002, Ram Chander Chhatrapati, the editor of Hindi-language daily "Poora Sacch" (The Whole Truth) was shot dead following the publication of an anonymous letter by one of Singh's followers. The letter, which eventually led to the 2017 sentencing of Singh, described incidents of sexual abuse at the Dera Sacha Sauda compound in the state of Haryana.
Sabarimala Issue
In September 2018, a judgement of the Supreme Court of India ruled that all pilgrims regardless of gender, including women in the menstruating age group, should be allowed entrance to Sabarimala. The SC’s landmark judgment came on 28 September 2018, declaring the ban on women of ages 10-40 entering the temple ‘unconstitutional’ and ‘discriminatory’. In the past, women devotees of menstruating age were not permitted to worship here, this ban being said to be out of respect to the celibate nature of the deity in this temple. A Kerala high-court judgement had legalized this interpretation, and forbade women from entering the temple since 1991.
Rafale deal controversy
The Supreme Court refused to go back on its December 14, 2018 order, rejecting a probe into the controversial Rafale deal.
In September 2016, India inked a direct deal with the French government to purchase 36 new Rafale fighter jets in a 7.87 billion euro deal. The deal was initially estimated to be worth Rs 54,000 crore. NDA government has insisted that it got significantly better terms than those quoted in the original bid under UPA, with a total reported saving of more than 1600 million Euros (350 million Euros on the cost of aircraft with a further reported saving on weapons, allied maintenance and training package amounting to a around 1300 million Euros or Rs 12,600 crores). However, a cost breakdown of Rafale in the original bid under UPA and in the 36 aircraft in the government-to-government deal under NDA are not in the public domain.
The final legal judgement on the controversy was delivered by the Supreme Court on 14 November 2019. It dismissed all the petitions seeking a review of its December 2018 judgement and upheld the Rafale deal, stating that no irregularities or corruption have been found.
2019 Kashmir lockdown
The lockdown has been in place since August, when New Delhi revoked Kashmir's semiautonomous status and imposed a curfew on the region, including shutting down the internet. The lockdown started on 5 August 2019 following Revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir via scrapping of the Article 370 of the Constitution of India, Article 35A of the Constitution of India and the introduction of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019. Since 5 August, no foreign journalists have been granted permission from the Indian government to report in Kashmir.
In February 2017, torn pages containing Gurbani verses from the Sikh holy book were found in an open drain at Khalra village in Tarn Taran. In January 2017, a few pages of the Gutka Sahib were found in front of a shop in Muktsar.
CAG controversy
The 2G spectrum case was an alleged scam that the politicians and private officials under the UPA coalition government in India were accused of committing.
India's top government auditor Vinod Rai deposed before the Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) on November 15, 2011, a day after his former colleague contradicted the controversial 2G audit report saying the presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in the radiowave allocation was only a "mathematical guess". After RP Singh, one of the key auditors in the 2G case, told the multi-party parliamentary probe panel that the loss suffered in the sale of scarce radiowave spectrum was only Rs 2,645 crore. Singh, then director general of audit, post and telecommunication, who retired on August 31, explained to the JPC that his calculation in a draft audit report was based on inflation rate of seven years as the entry fee decided in 2001 was not revised in 2008. But the final audit report put the figure at Rs 1.76 lakh crore, calling it presumptive loss on the basis that the scarce telecom spectrum should have been auctioned.
Nirbhaya Rape:
The case which shook the entire nation, took place on December 12, 2012. Nirbhaya gang rape case was so brutal and heinous that it changed the entire way us Indians used to look at sex crimes. The four convicts, Akshay, Pawan, Vinay and Mukesh were convicted for raping and brutally torturing 23-year-old paramedic on the night of December 16, 2012. A total of six people were convicted, out of which one juvenile was released after a three-year reform facility. The sixth convict, Ram Singh died during the trial.
After they were arrested, a controversial film on the Delhi gangrape, which features an interview with one of the six rapists currently serving his sentence in New Delhi's Tihar jail, started a debate. The debate, which has escalated to a proper controversy-storm now, began when Mukesh Singh, one of the convicts in the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang-rape case was interviewed by Leslee Udwin, and subsequently snippets from the interview were published in dailies in the country. While the views of Singh nauseated the viewers no end, the filmmaker's documentary, which was supposed to have been aired on a TV channel on March 8, has been banned by the government.
But even after 7 Years after the gang rape, brutal attacks against women continue. Lawmakers failed to bring a stringent law, and according to National Crime Records Bureau each day, about 90 rapes are reported in India, but many more go unreported due to the fear and stigma surrounding sexual violence.
