In the age of globalisation, the golden quartet of the Hindujas is truly a world phenomenon-causing political ripples across continents, upsetting political equations in Britain and India alike. Three of the businessmen brothers came back to India to give evidence in the Bofors bribery affair. They ended up staying longer than they bargained for. On May 14, two of them, Srichand and Gopichand, furnished personal bonds for Rs 30 crore-the biggest such in Indian legal history-before a trial judge. They were then allowed to leave the country while their brother Prakashchand, a Swiss citizen, stayed back as human guarantee, a "hostage" of the law, as it were. If that wasn't bad enough, the unseemly hurry with which Srichand had got his British passport embarrassed Tony Blair in an election year. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson-who had intervened on Hinduja's behalf-was forced to resign. Finally, the Hinduja attempt to buy a 40 per cent stake in Air-India was thwarted by the Government's very mysterious civil aviation policy. Tut tut.

THE GRAB

In the beginning, Atal Bihari Vajpayee needed a Gandhi in the government. Not any longer. Kamal Nath, on Maneka Gandhi's ouster

MANEKA GANDHI
Head and Tales

Investment-metaphor for victory-and divestment: the words that sum up the year for former minister of culture Maneka Gandhi. On November 8 she won a libel suit against the author and publisher of Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi-Katherine Frank and HarperCollins. An elaborate apology in the London High Court and a tidy sum as compensation and legal costs-unofficial estimate: £70,000-followed for allegations made against Maneka and her late husband Sanjay that she termed as "scurrilous and defamatory". The very victory paved the way for defeat. Maneka began alleging that her estranged sister-in-law, Leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi had masterminded the book "to forward her own image". A consequent battle over the Nehru-Gandhi memorial institutions-Sonia's legacy but Maneka's ministerial charge-led to another proxy war. Finally, out went the portfolio on November 18. Maneka's still complaining.

THE GRAB

Why talk of Ayodhya when there is no yodhha (warrior) in the country today? Hindustan is at the moment really A-yodhha (without a warrior). Bal Thackeray, Shiv Sena Chief

M.M. JOSHI
Doctor Doctrine

As Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi averaged a controversy a month in 2001. India's scientific temper was provoked by the University Grants Commission's decision to approve courses in Vedic astrology, and everyone from Marx to God was invoked in the ensuing exchange. The Left and Congress convened meeting after meeting to protest against "the saffronisation of education". Joshi, one-time physics professor at Allahabad University, was unruffled. He wondered aloud why Marxists were protesting since "Marxism has failed but it is still taught in universities". Since then the fight has entered phase II and now involves editing history textbooks. Schoolchildren must not be taught ancient Hindus ate beef and need to be guarded against insensitive references to, for instance, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Mahavir. Last heard Joshi was being felicitated by Sikh organisations and the RSS brotherhood, which is convinced he's the best minister in the Government.

B.P. VERMA
Custom Made

Apartments in Delhi, Noida and Kolkata. Stray investments worth Rs 40 lakh. Jewellery worth Rs 24 lakh. Loose change of about Rs 3.5 lakh; in many currencies. Few had heard of him before his arrest on April 2. Yet when B.P. Verma, chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs and the country's top revenue officer, was taken into custody for graft, criminal conspiracy and possession of assets far in excess of known sources of income, he evoked the voyeur in every Indian who had ever suffered the tyranny of the minor babu. Verma ran a government agency 80,000-strong. He made a career of transferring people and exploiting discretionary powers. He also lost his job, and India the taste in its mouth.

J. JAYALALITHA
Nine Lives

The greatest show on girth rolled back onto centrestage in May when Jayalalithaa Jayaram and her AIADMK swept the assembly election in Tamil Nadu. The lady herself had been prevented from contesting, disqualified by her conviction in a corruption case. That didn't stop her rewriting constitutional propriety and assuming office as chief minister, only to relinquish it when the Supreme Court reiterated her ineligibility to hold office. Before that she'd wreaked vengeance on her predecessor, M. Karunanidhi, who as chief minister (1996-2001) had filed charges against Jayalalithaa. Karunanidhi, 78, was arrested on an Emergency-era corruption charge, taken into custody in the midsummer madness a June night, the retributive drama being telecast live. Also arrested was his nephew and Union Commerce Minister Murasoli Maran. Tamil Nadu was thrown into tumult; Central and state governments were at each other's throats.

Jayalalithaa brazened it out, going on to trip her Congress allies by playing footsie with the BJP. Finally, in December, the Madras High Court acquitted her in the TANSI land scandal case and the convict was queen again, free to reclaim her throne.