Nitin Gadkari
From shaking up the very foundations of the Indian government to stirring up unseemly controversies, from showing incredible courage in the face of extreme adversities to losing a reputation built over years of hard work in just a blink of an eye, from setting the electoral hustings afire with golden speeches to getting into trouble for not speaking at all, there were many 'newsmakers' in 2012 who caught the common man's imagination. Some made it for stellar reasons, others for all there is wrong with the society. Here are 12 'newsmakers' that deserve a mention.
Murphy's law states that 'anything that can go wrong will go wrong'. Who else can infer this better than Nitin Gadkari, who has been charged with 'corruption'? To add fuel to fire, the beleaguered Bharatiya Janata Party president also made some awkward statements and found himself at the wrong end of the stick this year.
Suffering one setback after the other, Gadkari today finds himself cornered by some of his own party members. After allegations of owning shell companies were levelled, Gadkari kicked up a storm by likening Swami Vivekananda to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim by saying: "If we consider scientifically, then Swami Vivekananda and Dawood Ibrahim might have the same IQ. However, Dawood used it for wrongdoings and became the emperor of the criminal world, whereas Swami Vivekananda used his intelligence for welfare of the society and nation and became a source of inspiration for the entire world."
To his misfortune, the Congress promptly attacked him, apparently twisting the meaning of his remark and alleging that he compared Vivekananda with Dawood.
Journalist Rajdeep Sardesai in a column wrote: "In this open season against corruption, it would be easy to see Gadkari as yet another high-profile 'target' of the growing public anger against political corruption. What might have been dismissed as 'sharp' business practices in another period is now evidence of yet another politician trying to wink at the law by a mix of recklessness and subterfuge. Why else would a self-proclaimed 'social entrepreneur' choose to set up a maze of fictitious shell companies unless he believed he could get away with it using political clout?"
"The story of an under siege Gadkari is not just about popular rage against him, it also seems to reflect a growing crisis within the country's premier Opposition party. In the last three years, in the relentless gaze on the wrongdoings of the UPA 2, the BJP has been in soft focus. And yet, the travails of the BJP at times suggest that its future is just as uncertain as the Congress's."
