Newsmakers of 2022: From Murmu to Chandrachud to Adani to Deepika
Droupadi Murmu, who hailed from Odisha’s Mayurbhanj, scripted history when she became the first tribal women and the youngest to be elected as the 15th President of India. Born in a Santhal tribal household on June 20, 1958, Murmu struggled with poverty in her childhood in one of the most remote and underdeveloped districts of the country. “I come from the poorest of the poor families and never expected I will take up politics. I had plans to study and get a regular job to support my family financially. However, there have been several incidents in my life that led me to quit my job,” Murmu told a TV show.
From being a teacher to becoming a two-time MLA from Rairangpur and serving as the first woman governor of a state, her journey had its fair share of setbacks. She took her first steps in politics in Rairangpur, where she was elected as a BJP councillor in 1997 and then became a minister in Odisha’s BJD-BJP coalition government from 2000 to 2004.
Also Read: By choosing Droupadi Murmu as Presidential nominee, BJP kills two birds with one stone
The 64-year old President, who has diverse administrative experience having handled ministries such as transport, commerce, fisheries and animal husbandry in the Odisha government, however, lost the Lok Sabha election in 2009 from Mayurbhanj constituency.
Her personal life also was plagued by tragedy as she lost three of her closest family members – her eldest son Laxman Murmu in 2009, her younger son Sippun Murmu in 2013, and then her husband Shyam Charan Murmu in 2014. “There was a time when I thought I might die anytime,” President Murmu said, remarking that sorrow and happiness have their own space in life. It is no wonder that a biography on her inspiring story is on the cards.
Nupur Sharma
She became one of the most contentious figures in Indian politics to emerge in 2022. A student from Delhi University, Nupur Sharma began her political career in 2008 when she became the president of the university’s students union as a candidate of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of RSS.
Also watch: Will Droupadi Murmu’s presidency benefit tribals? | Off The Beaten Track- Episode 3
Her political career picked up in 2011 when she returned to India after doing her Master’s in law at the London School of Economics. Sharma was brash and articulate, and got recognised for being able to effectively put forth her point of view in both English and Hindi. In 2015, when she was just 30 years old, she was picked as the BJP’s candidate in the Delhi Assembly elections and pitted against Arvind Kejriwal.
Although Sharma lost the election by a margin of 31,000 votes, her political career took off from there. In 2020, given her expertise on legal issues and bilingual skills, she was appointed as the BJP’s national spokesperson. She appeared frequently on television debates and stood out for passionately advocating Hindutva. All hell broke out in May 2022, when Sharma, during a debate on a news channel on the Gyanvapi mosque controversy, made some disparaging remarks against Prophet Muhammad.
Not only did her remarks provoke people to protest in India, they spiralled into a foreign diplomacy row as several Gulf nations, including Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, sought an apology from India. The Supreme Court castigated her for “her loose tongue (which) has set the entire country on fire” and blamed her for “igniting emotions across the country”. Her outburst led to the beheading of a Hindu tailor who had supported Sharma on social media platforms.
The BJP was forced to suspend Sharma, and she, too, withdrew her comments and, in a statement posted on Twitter, said that her intention was not to hurt anyone. But, she never went behind bars for her incendiary comments.
Also read: SC grants bail to Mohammed Zubair in all UP FIRs; disbands SIT
Mohammed Zubair
The shocking arrest of fact-checking website AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair in June 2022 sparked widespread anxiety about the state of press freedom in India. A Twitter sensation with over half-a-million followers, Zubair was both loved and hated on social media. While many praised Alt News for debunking disinformation and misinformation campaigns, the right wing viewed him with a jaundiced eye and often targeted him.
AltNews had highlighted hate speeches made by Hindu ‘seers’ at a gathering in Haridwar. The platform also notably identified individuals running the Hindu right-wing website DainikBharat.org. But what eventually led to his arrest in June was his role in highlighting Nupur Sharma’s remarks against the Prophet and his wife Aisha during a TV detabte. The video clip of her comments was shared by Zubair on social media and it went viral and ended up receiving international attention.
Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh police had lodged an FIR against Zubair for allegedly hurting religious sentiments by referring to Mahant Bajrang Muni ‘Udasin’, Yati Narsinghanand and Swami Anand Swarup as “hatemongers” on Twitter, after videos showed them making inflammatory statements against minorities in India.
Also Read: Know about Mohammed Zubair, fact-checker, AltNews co-founder
Finally, he was, however, arrested for his 2018 tweet which had showed an image of a hotel signboard repainted from “Honeymoon Hotel” to “Hanuman Hotel”. The image is a screenshot from the 1983 Hrishikesh Mukherjee Bollywood classic ‘Kissi Se Na Kehna’. In the tweet, Zubair wrote, “Before 2014: Honeymoon Hotel, After 2014: Hanuman Hotel”, taking a dig at the BJP government which had assumed power in 2014.
He was arrested for promoting enmity between different groups and for malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings. Multiple FIRs were lodged against him in UP, two in Hathras and one each in Sitapur, Lakhimpur Kheri, Muzaffarnagar, Ghaziabad, and at Chandauli police station, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments. Even as he got bail another case would be filed against him.
But on July 20, Zubair was granted interim bail by the Supreme Court, which also disbanded the Special Investigation Team formed by UP to probe six separate cases against him, and said that there was no justification to keep him in continued custody. He had spent 24 days in custody. His arrest has been described as a new low for press freedom in India.
Bilkis Bano
When the 11 convicts in the 2002 Bilkis Bano gang-rape case, were released on August 15 on grounds of good behaviour, the pain and the anguish Bano had undergone during that horrific time resurfaced once again. Bano had been 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped along with her mother and three other women while fleeing the riots that had broken out after the Godhra train burning incident. Out of the 17-member group of Muslims who had fled along with Bilkis, eight were found dead, including her three-year-old daughter and six were missing.
For Bano, whose case was taken up by the National Human Rights Commission, the pursuit of justice had never been easy. She received death threats, prompting the Supreme Court, in 2004, to move the trial out of Gujarat to Mumbai. Bano persevered in her fight and in January 2008, a special CBI court in Mumbai had convicted 11 of the 20 accused on charges of conspiracy to rape a pregnant woman, murder, unlawful assembly, and other charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
So, when the 11 convicts were released by the Gujarat government on the basis of a state remission policy, Bano who was initially shocked and paralysed with fear for her children, her daughters, and above all, “paralysed by loss of hope”, decided to fight back. She challenged the order of the early release of 11 men in Supreme Court.
Talking about her decision to move the SC challenging their early release, Bano said, “I will stand and fight again, against what is wrong and for what is right.” According to her, this release of the convicts has “shaken the conscience of society”.
“The decision to once again stand up and knock on the doors of justice was not easy for me. For a long time, after the men who destroyed my entire family and my life were released, I was simply numb,” said Bilkis Bano. But the spaces of my silence were filled with other voices; voices of support from different parts of the country that have given me hope in the face of unimaginable despair; and made me feel less alone in my pain, she said.
Also read: SC dismisses one of the two pleas by Bilkis Bano against release of 11 convicts
“I do this today for myself, for my children, and for women everywhere”, she added. The SC, however, has dismissed one of her two petitions. We can only say, Bravo to Bilkis Bano as she keeps up the fight.
Nadav Lapid
No one in India knew Israeli director Nadav Lapid except probably for film buffs and aficionados who frequented film festivals. As the head of the jury at the 53rd International Film Festival in Goa in November this year, Lapid set the cat among the pigeons when he criticised a film that the BJP-led government held sacred: The Kashmir Files.
For Lapid, the propaganda in ‘The Kashmir Files‘ legitimises violence, bigotry and prejudice against the Muslims of Kashmir. He called it vulgar and said that it was “inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival”.
While some praised him for his outspokenness, his own countryman, Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon lashed out at him on Twitter for abusing Indian warmth and hospitality etc. Lapid who had studied philosophy at the Tel Aviv University, had moved to Paris before returning to his homeland to pursue a degree at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in Jerusalem.
With the rare ability to philosophise while entertaining at the same time, Lapid’s films have picked up some serious issues and manage to weave in dark humour. A recipient of the prestigious Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Lapid is a part of various film juries across the world. In his career spanning nearly two decades, Lapid has directed 13 films in total, including both full-length features and short films.
Lapid’s work often shows the conflicted relationship he holds with Israel and his Jewish identity. On the one hand, he embraces his heritage and identity, slams global antisemitism, and on the other, his films are critical of Israel’s militarism and curtailment of freedoms. His latest film ‘Ahed’s Knee’ (2021) dealt with some of his inner conflicts.
After the ruckus that broke out in India, Lapid went back to his country and stuck to his stand and said he did not regret what he said about ‘The Kashmir Files’. “I had the feeling it needed to be stated. At a certain level, the way things turned out, I think my intuition was right; these words needed to be spoken,” he said. However, he apologised to displaced Kashmiri Pandits and said that his comments in no way derided their pain and anguish.
Gautam Adani
Asia’s richest and the world’s third richest, Gautam Adani is always in the news for one controversy or the other. But he took the corporate world entirely by surprise when he staged a takeover attempt of news channel NDTV, viewed as a bastion of independent media earlier this year. And, with this move, Adani joined the league of the likes of Jeff Bezos who owns the ‘Washington Post’ and the Murdoch family that runs Fox Corporation.
Founded in 1988 and owned by husband-and-wife team Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, NDTV is India’s best-known news network that pioneered data-driven vote analysis, morning shows, and a host of tech and lifestyle programmes on TV. With revenues of around $51m and a modest profit of $10m, NDTV may not be a lucrative buy for Adani, whose sprawling ports to energy conglomerate has a market capitalisation of $260bn.
In August, Adani acquired a 100 per cent stake in Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL).
VCPL owned convertible debentures (in the form of warrants) in Radhika Roy Prannoy Roy (RRPR) Holding Pvt Ltd, which in turn owned 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV Ltd. So with the VCPL purchase, the Adani group indirectly acquired these warrants which would give it a 29.18 per cent stake in NDTV Ltd on conversion.
Armed with 29.18 per cent indirect stake in NDTV Ltd, launched an open offer to acquire an additional 26 per cent stake in the Delhi-based channel on November 22. The open offer closed on December 5 this year. Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika Roy initially put up a fight but caved in. The Roys previously said that the move by Adani Group “was executed without any input from, conversation with, or consent of the NDTV founders”.
But after “constructive” talks with Adani who accepted their suggestions, they also decided to sell 27.26 per cent out of their remaining 32.26 per cent shareholding in the news broadcaster to the Adani Group. After the acquisition of the Roys’ stake, the Adani group’s holding in NDTV will rise to 64.71 per cent.
Time will tell whether the editorial content and tenor of the network will change under the new ownership. At a time when TV news is polarised, NDTV was considered to be more left-of-the centre and did stories critical of the government. Adani believes there’s nothing to fear. “Independence means if government has done something wrong, you say it’s wrong,” he told Financial Times. “But at the same time, you should have courage when the government is doing the right thing. You have to also say that.”
The acquisition of NDTV marks the Adani group’s second foray into the media segment. In May, it bought a 49 per cent stake in Raghav Bahl-led digital business news platform Quintillion Business Media in May.
Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud
Justice Dhananjay Yashwant Chandrachud, who took over as the 50th Chief Justice of India in November this year is famously known for his strong views on dissent. Terming dissent as a “safety valve of democracy”, the judge had clearly expressed his views against the “blanket labelling” of dissent as anti-national or anti-democratic. He also expressed his views against employing state machinery to curb dissent because that instils “fear and creates a chilling atmosphere”.
To him, the true test of a democracy is the ability to allow individuals to express their opinion. The 63-year-old Justice Chandrachud, who started his legal career in the Bombay high court and moved to Supreme Court in 2016, had made his views against critical issues amply clear through his profound judgments. His judgments on Aadhaar, which he said was a fraud on the Constitution; on right to privacy as “intrinsic to human dignity”, criminalising marital rape to reading down section 377 of the IPC, had made him a keenly watched judge. He is often praised for his scholarly, erudite and progressive views on various issues.
Justice Chandrachud was also on the bench that heard the Sabarimala Temple entry case, where he held that the exclusion of women between the ages of 10-50 years from Sabarimala Temple violated “constitutional morality”. Recently, in a landmark judgment, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, AS Bopanna and JB Pardiwala included unmarried women in the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP) and said that the exclusion of unmarried women from the act was ‘discriminatory’.
He was part of the judgment instrumental in criminalising marital rape. Against “sex stereotypes” and “gender discrimination”, in February 2020, a bench headed by Justice Chandrachud ruled in favour of women officers in the Army getting permanent commission and command postings.
Significantly, CJI Chandrachud is at the helm when the apex court is currently at loggerheads with the government over filling up vacancies in higher courts. Meanwhile, the CJI purportedly has plans to activate special night courts and fast track courts and “to use technology to make a large part of this 4 crore plus arrears (court cases) collapse like a house of cards”.
The legal fraternity especially seems enthused with this new CJI who took over in the 75th year of India’s freedom.
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone found herself once again the target of right-wing groups for wearing a saffron coloured bikini and sarong while dancing to a song with her co-star Shah Rukh Khan in her forthcoming film ‘Pathaan’. Besides calling her clothes vulgar and obscene, they also found her saffron-coloured attire while singing ‘Beshram Rang’ offensive.
The song rattled the right-wingers and they wanted the entire film to be banned and boycotted. A controversy broke out (on social media primarily) and the home minister of Madhya Pradesh slammed the visuals and the costumes because he found it objectionable.
Accusing the actor of supporting the ‘Tukde Tukde’ gang, MP home minister Narattom Mishra said, “Actress Deepika Padukone’s costume is highly objectionable and the song has been shot with a dirty mindset.” Also, he threatened that if it was not “corrected” they would ban the film in MP and so forth. Deepika has courted controversy many times having bravely stood by JNU students during the height of the protests against the CAA bill; when the ‘Padmavaat’ set was ravaged by Karni Seva activitists and being interrogated by the Narcotics Control Bureau for Bollywood’s tryst with drugs after Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
However, the long-legged beauty has weathered it all. A lot of people have come out in support of Padukone and Shah Rukh, the latest being veteran actress Asha Parekh. Meanwhile, even as Padukone maintains a stoic silence ‘Pathaan’s second song ‘Jhoome Jo Pathaan’ released. Luckily, no one has given an objectional colour to it!
8 Cheetahs from Africa
A total of eight cheetahs—five females and three males—were translocated from Namibia to Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno National Park as part of a cheetah reintroduction plan. Over 70 years after they went extinct, eight cheetahs landed in India to coincide with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday.
A plan to reintroduce cheetahs in India that was endorsed in 2009 by the then environment minister Jairam Ramesh was shot down by the Supreme Court in 2013. The idea was revived in 2017 by the Narendra Modi government, and the SC cleared the move in 2020 “on an experimental basis”. This is the first time in the world that a large carnivore will be relocated from one continent to another.
Also Read: Cheetah relocation: Politics tilted choice in favour of MP’s Kuno
After they were brought to India, they were housed in six enclosures and fed buffalo meat. Before they are released into the wild, translocated wild animals are kept in quarantine for a month to check the spread of any infection. So, all eight specimens were kept in quarantine, and as per the plan, are to be released in game-stocked enclosures for acclimatisation, where they are expected to kill for food. From the game-stocked enclosure, the cheetahs would be released into the wild.
The first to be moved out of quarantine were two males, siblings Elton and Freddie. They were moved out on November 5, while Obaan, the third male in the group, was released on November 18. The other six cheetahs are Savannah, Sasha, Obaan, Asha, Cibili and Saisa.
Also read: Cheetahs: Their Mughal connection, and how they went extinct in India
The five females and three males were brought to India as part of Project Cheetah to reintroduce the big cat in the wild, more than 70 years after it went extinct in the country. Exotic cheetahs were in the news in India like no other wildlife animal.
