India 2010!

"When their lordships asked Bacon
How many bribes he had taken
He had at least the grace
To get very red in the face"

-Edmund Clerihew Bentleyr

A bad year in which our Rajas did not have the grace to get very red in the face comes to an end.2010 can compete with 1984 for the title "Annus Horriblis" not simply for numbers like 17600000000 (The reader is advised to fill up the correct number of zeros.We Indians value zero so much that some of us keep proving that zeros have an exorbitant value.) but the shamelessness which defines these politicians.
"Tehelka" ran a story on how Yeddyurappa's men had unfairly allotted lands to their kith and kin in the title "Land Scam ver1.0".The next week,they ran a Ver2.0 exposing how the previous JD(S) and Congress regimes had looted efficiently.The week after,they ran a Ver3.0 bringing to light the tricks of the neighbour old fox who invokes caste to escape corruption charges-Muthamizh Arignar Kalaignar(A film director was reprimanded for choosing to use his name in a public function)- in allotting land.Advani organises anti-corruption rallies in every state except Karnataka because BJP is the pilferer there.All political parties in the country have formed a potential coalition against every common man.
An entire winter session was wasted on a simple question :"JPC vs PAC".The supposed-to-be mature politicians turned babies demanding their bar of chocolate adamantly.The UPA regime should give in to the opposition's demands if they believe in their clean conscience.If empty egos do not allow for sanity to prevail,a midterm polls is possible in 2011 which will drain the resources even more.
All India Radia tapes so blatantly exposed the dark side of every institution we cherished.Journalists getting involved was the clincher.Henceforth,we cannot read headlines with conviction.Paid news and manipulated news are hard to digest."Dangerous" people like A Roy and Binayak Sen were FIRed or arrested while the "safer" Kalmadis and Ashok Chavans were given the highest punishment of removal from their posts.Unrest continued in the Red Corridor and Kashmir as usual forcing them to disappear from the Indian mindspace.A bomb blast or a rape by soldiers will make them reclaim prime time TV,trigger a new group of interlocutors and make A Roy write her 33 page articles.
Commonwealth games went well because of the typical Indian last-minute mad rush.We came second calling for crackers and celebrations before Asian Games rudely exposed that CWG was as outdated as the Empire itself.The heads of all five permanent Security Council members came calling,talked of an emerged India,lent support to SC reform and went back with jobs and trade contracts.Elsewhere,Julian Assange defined all things anti-American and was celebrated as the torchbearer of "Right to Information".Even in India,this legislation delivered the goods as a majority of the exposes were the outcome of it.
Just as the ISRO (That rare government organisation which commands respect) disaster of yet another GSLV failure sinks in,housewives fight the urge to use Onions for dinner,fasting Naidus and Raos wait for the explosive Srikrishna report,a natural question arises as to what went right in 2010 for India.After brooding over it,I hit upon the right one.Yes,Sachin scored a 200 and Sachin hit a half-century of centuries.Imagine what would India do without these Sachins.