india 1992

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1947-2008-India-Roundup

The Ramjanmabhoomi agitation reached its zenith as thousands of kar-sevaks convered on Ayodhya and demolished the Babri Masjid on December 6. In a matter of just five and a half hours, a 400-year-old monument was reduced to a pile of rubble and

India

’s long-heralded secular traditions lay in a shambles. For millions around the country, it was the dawn of the proverbial Ram Rajya. For many others, it was the end of reason and minority rights. The riots that followed left over 700 dead across the country, but the bjp still considered it a living proof of the unstoppable power of the Hindu Rashtra.

WORLD NEW

The cable TV boom had viewers plugging into the Gulf War, and the World Cup in Australia. By November, 12.82 lakh Indians watched Star TV, which started in December 1991.

FIRST CUT

The Indian Air Force inducted its first women officers, Savneet Shergill and Shivika Khurana. They were both inducted in the non-technical arms.

DID YOU KNOW

The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal, on February 1, declared former Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson an absconder in the Bhopal Gas Leak case. He has still not been extradited for trial.

“I DON’T HAVE TO REGRET ANY-THING. IF THERE IS ANYTHING TO REGRET, IT IS THAT SUCH A THING HAS BEFALLEN THE COUNTRY.”

P.V. NARASIMHA RAO after the demolition of the Babri Masjid

TRYING TO PUTTHE GENIE BACK

On December 5, former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, along with a host of Janata Dal and communist leaders, was arrested at Ram Sanehi Ghat in Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh. They were on their way to Ayodhya to obtain a first-hand account of the Babri Masjid situation as it developed there. Singh recorded a detailed statement on the demolition with the Liberhan Commission of inquiry into the matter.

DESTROYER-IN-CHIEF Kalyan Singh

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was a vital cog in the machinery that eventually brought down the Babri Masjid. As the soft face of the bjp, he hood-winked the Centre with false assurances and played on Narasimha Rao’s near-obsession for constitutional propriety. And as the smoke of burning Muslim homes was beginning to cloud the horizon, he pre-empted the dismissal of his government by the Centre by resigning on December 6.

“I’M LIVING HOUR TO HOUR.”

Harshad Mehta was a small-time stockbroker on Dalal Street who became a self-made celebrity living in a palatial mansion with a golf course, swimming pool and a fleet of flashy cars. Arrested on June 4, the Big Bull is estimated to have siphoned off close to Rs 5,000 crore by manipulating banks and building false positions on a number of high value stocks. Mehta died of a heart attack in 2001.

ELSEWHERE…

Democrat candidate Bill Clinton became the 42^nd president of the United States, defeating Republican incumbent George Bush. “There is nothing wrong with American today that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” He said in his inaugural speech after taking oath.