2014 Top 15 news makers in India

They've been newsmakers in 2014 for various reasons and with 2015 just around the corner it's time to take a look at the people and personalities who made headlines and caused quite a stir in the year gone.

 Here are the top 15 newsmakers across India:

(01) Amit Shah:

Current President of BJP (from July 2014); receives Z plus security Cover from Government; since 1989, Shah has fought 28 elections to the Gujarat State Assembly and various local bodies. As of 2014, he has never lost an election. After Narendra Modi became the Prime Ministerial candidate of BJP, Shah's influence also increased in the party. The two have been accused of sidelining other senior BJP leaders such as Lal Krishna Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Murli Manohar Joshi and Jaswant Singh.

Media dubbed him as a "modern day Chanakya and master strategist". In UP, where Shah was the in-charge, BJP won 71 out of 80 seats. Shah had been made in-charge of BJP's UP campaigning on 12 June 2013, less than an year before the elections. In Maharashtra also his strategy of leaving Shiv Sena won, making BJP to win Maharashtra Assembly for the first time. The same trend continued in Haryana. In the end of 2014, BJP won Jharkhand Assembly with absolute majority and won the considerable number of seats in J&K Assembly elections.

Now, this 'modern day Chanakya' targets Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Odisha to come into Saffron fold.

(02) Narendra Modi:

          Narendra Modi was sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014. Modi led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which resulted in an outright majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha (the last time that any party had secured an outright majority in the Lok Sabha was in 1984). Since then, Modi has also been credited for the BJP's electoral victories in the states of Haryana and Maharashtra in October 2014. Narendra Modi contested the election from two constituencies: Varanasi and Vadodara. He won both the seats, later resigned Vadodara Const. In Varanasi LS Const, he defeated AAP leader Mr. Arvind Kejriwal.

In "India's first social media election", Modi effectively used social media like Twitter, Facebook and Google in his campaign, besides Google Hangouts and holograms for campaign appearances. He even posted a selfie on Twitter and his victory tweet emerged as the most retweeted in India. In online, he is referred as "PM" (Photoshoot Minister). In 2014, he was ranked as the 15th most powerful person in the world by Forbes.

(03) Mangalyaan:

          Mangalyaan (MoM - Mars Orbiter Mission)is a spacecraft orbiting Mars since 24 September 2014. It was launched on 5 November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is India's first interplanetary mission and ISRO has become the fourth space agency to reach Mars, after the Soviet space program, NASA, and the European Space Agency. It is also the first nation to reach Mars orbit on its first attempt, and the first Asian nation to do so.

On 28 September 2014, Mars Orbiter Mission published its first global view of Mars. The image was captured by the Mars Colour Camera (MCC).

ISRO plans to send a follow-up mission with a greater scientific payload to Mars between 2018 and 2020.This mission will likely consist of a lander and rover, rather than being orbiter-only.

(04) First Monorail:

          The then Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr. Prithviraj Chavan inaugurated India's first monorail in Mumbai on Feb 02, 2014. The rail runs between Wadala Depot and Chembur. The construction of monorail began in 2009. Rail runs from 6am to 8pm.

In the first week of operations (2–8 February 2014), the monorail transported 1,36,865 passengers in about 512 trips, earning a total revenue of  Rs. 14,24,810.

(05) Trio who forbidden Modi Tsunami:

          There are only three survivors in the Narendra Modi political tsunami. They are: Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal.

Among the regional parties wiped out or significantly diminished are the Nationalist Congress Party, National Conference, the DMK, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, all of whom had been closely associated with the Congress in the UPA. Even outside support to the UPA proved deadly.

          In Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa's AIADMK has taken the state, winning a whopping 37 out of 39 seats in the state in an election where she took her biggest risk by not going with her traditional allies, nor with Modi despite an old friendship.

If in Tamil Nadu it was for Amma, West Bengal gave its support to Didi with Mamata Banerjee winning 32 of 42 seats in the state, despite her taking on Narendra Modi in a sharply worded campaign where she said she would have arrested him had she been in power.

But the biggest holdout against the BJP wave was Odisha, where Naveen Patnaik won the assembly for a third time, as well as the Lok Sabha.

But now Jayalalithaa is a former Chief Minister, who was convicted by a Court in a corruption case. It seems that, Jaya’s political career is almost hanging.

(06) Ballot wins over Bullet:

          The State of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) witnessed Assembly Elections in 2014. Elections held in five phases from Nov 25 to Dec 20, 2014. VVPAT along with EVMs were used in 3 Assembly seats out of 87 seats.

The polls were carried out in five phases. The turnout at the last stage, at 76%, was the highest turnout in the state in 25 years. The State's overall turnout was 65.23%

Irrespective of boycott of elections as said by some separatists group, people gathered in large numbers to elect the representatives. EC arranged a tight security and also made several arrangements to conduct elections without any stray of violence.

(07) AAP/Arvind Kejriwal:

After an end-of-year bonanza, the Aam Aadmi Party and its leader Arvind Kejriwal, faced a tumultuous beginning to 2014. After just 49 days of forming the Delhi government, the AAP resigned, citing deadlocks over power sharing with the Centre and unprecedented street protests by the cabinet. The move has since met with derision and discontent, especially after the party's poor showing in the Lok Sabha elections

(08) Clean India:

          Called as Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. A national level campaign by the Government of India, covering 4041 statutory towns to clean the streets, roads and infrastructure of the country.

The campaign was officially launched on Oct 02, 2014 at Rajghat, New Delhi, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself wielded broom and cleaned a road. The campaign is India's biggest ever cleanliness drive and 3 million government employees and schools and colleges students of India participated in this event

(09) Kailash Sathyarthi:

          A child rights activist, Kailash Satyarthi received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo this year. He shared his award with Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai who was shot by Taliban for standing up for the cause of education for girls. Mr Satyarthi won the prize for working against child labour.

(10) Telangana:

          The state of Telangana was officially formed on 2 June 2014. Mr. K. Chandrashekar Rao was elected as the first chief minister of Telangana, following elections in which the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) party secured majority. Hyderabad will remain as the joint capital of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for a period of 10 years. It is the 12th largest state in India (both by area and population)

(11) Kiss of Love:

          Kiss of Love protest is a non-violent protest against moral policing which started in Kerala and later spread to other parts of India. The movement began when a Facebook page called 'Kiss of love' asked the youth across Kerala to participate in a protest against moral policing on November 2, 2014, at Marine Drive, Cochin. The movement received widespread support with more than 1,43,000 'Likes' for the Facebook page.

Both the Supreme Court of India and Delhi High Court have made it clear that kissing in public is not an obscene act and no criminal proceedings can be initiated, for kissing in public, through landmark judgments. The event gathered support from educational institutions outside of Kerala including University of Hyderabad, JNU Delhi, IISER Kolkata, Pondicherry University, IIT Madras and IIT Bombay.

On November 8, a group of protestors demonstrated by kissing and hugging outside RSS headquarters in Delhi. While JNU students were at the forefront, there were representatives from several universities in the city like Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Ambedkar University Delhi and National Law University. Hindu Sena members arrived on the scene stating that the “Western culture was corrupting and degrading Indian culture”. Hindu Sena members tried to physically attack kissing couples.

(12) Uber rape:

The shocking rape of a young woman executive by the driver of an Uber cab in Delhi in December held grave repercussions across the country. Uber and other similar taxi services, which had stood as a symbol of expanding freedom for women have now come under the scanner.

(13) Rahul Gandhi:

Vice-President of the Indian National Congress (INC) party and the Chairperson of the Indian Youth Congress and the National Students Union of India.

Won Amethi Lok Sabha Constituency in 2014 General Elections. Under his leadership, the Indian National Congress suffered its worst ever performance in elections and won only 44 seats compared to 206 seats won previously in the 2009 general election. The Congress-led electoral alliance, the UPA also had its worst ever performance in elections and won only 59 seats compared to 262 seats won previously in the 2009 general election.

(14) Natural Disasters:

Kashmir faced the worst floods in a century in September, rendering thousands homeless and without food just ahead of the winter and Assembly elections. People in capital Srinagar and other cities remained stranded for long periods of time, sometimes days, for help to reach them, as the Army and Air Force carried out rescue and relief operations.

This massive supercyclone (Hudhud) dealt a violent blow to the east coast of India in October, wreaking havoc on Vishakapatnam and other towns, leaving about 50 people dead and affecting 4 lakh people. In a pale silver lining to the destruction, the Indian Meteorological Department turned out the most precise prediction of the cyclone's path, trumping the forecasts of a number of premier global institutions. The prediction helped local governments take steps that helped limit the damage.

(15) Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti:

          MoS for Food Processing Industries. The minister was involved in a controversy on (Dec 02, 2014) when she stated at a public rally: "It is you whom must decide whether the Government in Delhi will be run by the Sons of Ram or by Bastards (Sons of Illegitimacy)". Niranjan Jyoti subsequently expressed “deep regret” over her statement and said she did not intend to hurt anyone’s feelings. Opposition parties blocked Parliament proceedings against her hate speech. At last, Prime Minister itself asked her Minister to speak ‘properly’ in public places.

See Also the Following links:

2014 'global' Newsmakers (Top 15)

2014 top Sporting Events 

2014: Disasters across the world