Year ender: Controversies of 2019

New Delhi, Dec 30: The year 2019 is a year to remember as many historical judgements were being made this year while some were praised and some were surrounded with criticism. The word controversy in our country surely is peculiar, many incidents in the politics that created fuss but sometimes few situations capture the attention of the people to such an extent that the incident soon spirals into a controversy.

Here are some of the major controversies of 2019:

The Ayodhya Verdict: On November 9, this year the most awaited historic Ayodhya verdict was announced by the Supreme Court of India. The apex court in its verdict by a five-judges bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi ahead of his retirement on November 17, ruled in favour of building Ram Mandir at the disputed site where the Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992. The court has also asked the Centre to provide an alternate land of 5-acres to the Sunni Waqf Board to build a mosque. Later several review petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking review of the historical judgement. However, the court rejected all the petitions.

Article 370 abrogation: On August 5, the Centre took a historic decision to scrap Article 370 that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir. On August 6, the Lok Sabha voted in favour of scrapping Article 370 in J&K. The Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, passed this resolution on August 5. The presidential accord for the same was granted on August 9. Later, the Parliament passed a Bill to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, that are - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019: The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019. It amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 by providing a path to Indian citizenship for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities fleeing from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan facing religious persecution there. The Act triggered huge protest violence across the nation. Many lost their lives and several public property was also damaged during the protest violence in the country.

National Register of Citizens (NRC): Over 19 lakh people in Assam were out of the National Register of Citizens (NRC)'s final updated citizenship document released on August 31. NRC was declared by the government to be exercised in other states as well but many opposition parties stood against it. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the Centre saying that she won't allow NRC to be exercised in Bengal.

There were some other controversies like-

The TMC MPs and Bengali actors Mimi Chakraborty and Nusrat Jahan who posted pictures of their first day at the Parliament wearing western attire were trolled on social media. Both the TMC MPs were shamed by the netizens for how they dressed up on their first day as Members of Parliament.

Again a few days later, TMC MP Nusrat Jahan was trolled for sporting sindoor and Mangalsutra at her oath-taking ceremony as an MP on June 25 this year in the Parliament. Nusrat, who married Kolkata-based entrepreneur Nikhil Jain was dressed up like a newly wedded Hindu bride at her oath-taking ceremony in the Parliament was criticised. She replied to the criticism saying that she represents an "inclusive India" and would not pay heed to the comments made by "hardliners as it only breeds hatred and violence".

Karnataka political Crisis: The fall of the H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government led to the political crisis in Karnataka that was triggered by the resignation of 17 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs on 6 July this year. Later, the trust vote demanded by the BJP was conducted where BJP's B S Yeddyurappa and other BJP members showed victory signs in the House and formed the government in Karnataka. This huge political drama that continued nearly a month created a huge controversy in politics.

Maharashtra Political crisis: Another political crisis that created the controversy this year was the Maharashtra government formation. On October 24, after the results of the state assembly polls were declared there were a lot of issues among all the political parties regarding the chief ministerial post, and Shiv Sena and BJP parted their alliance by not forming the government. This resulted in the imposition of President's rule in Maharashtra. On November 23, President's rule revoked at 5.47 am BJP's Devendra Fadnavis sworn in as Maharashtra chief minister, and Ajit Pawar as deputy chief minister. Later with Supreme Court's decision the floor test held on Nov 27, where NCP, Shiv Sena and Congress showing majority decided to form the government in the state.