Columns: Flipside

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India Today, January 11, 1999
Jan 11, 1999

FLIPSIDE
Auld Lang Syne

By Dilip Bobb

It's a peculiar time of the year. Tradition demands celebrations to ring out the old and bring in the new, yet, for as long as memory serves, there's been precious little to celebrate. Be that as it may, the show must go on, the feeling of good cheer ushering in temporary amnesia and misplaced optimism. It also prompts another ritual: the annual stock-taking when people and events are, with the benefit of hindsight, given their just due. Here are the winners and losers in 1998.

Rise Of The Year: And Mama Mia, was it a surprise. A classic case study of how to succeed without really trying too hard. Admittedly, there were times when it seemed that the BJP did more to contribute to her political fortunes than her own party. But, in the end, it provided the ultimate paradox of Indian politics; an Italian-born woman with no official experience or background, not to mention her limited knowledge of the official language, had, virtually overnight, become the leading contender for the top job. To her credit, it was done Oh Solo Mio. Congressmen all over are busy burying the pasta and hoping their official cars soon change from ambassadors to Fiat Unos.

Businessman Of The Year: Like Sonia Gandhi, another person whose curriculum vitae consisted mainly of being an in-law. Manmohan Singh eat your heart out. For the first time, a politician who does not reside in the capital has become the darling of the capitalists. By renaming Hyderabad as Cyberabad, has opened the floodgates to investors like Bill Gates. Is perhaps the only businessman who didn't weep all the way to the Industrial Development Bank of India in 1998. Has proved that the nexus between politics and business isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Optimist of The Year: Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha for his weekly predictions about an economic turnaround which became weakly predictions. Also, for ensuring that the credibility gap between official projections and reality remained the only constant in a year when all other statistics headed southwards. However, deserves credit for turning things around, even though the only things he turned around, somewhat conveniently, were official figures. His latest prediction is that India will emerge as the only global superpower in 2001. Watch this space.

Non-event of the Year: Pokhran II which proved that sequels are not always successful. Sanctions and the international cold-shoulder reinforced the fact that you cannot have your nuclear cake and eat it too. Eventually, as opinion polls indicate, it showed that the average Indian is more interested in the Government enriching their lives than enriching uranium.

Gut Issue Of The Year: The humble onion which humbled sundry politicians, most notably Sushma Swaraj. Proved that as far as voters were concerned, their gut-feeling, mostly empty in 1998, ruled their thumbprint. For the Congress, redefined the meaning of "power-hungry". For the ruling party, it will godown in history as their costliest error.

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