Whatever India is today, it’s all a result of an unknown
journey that India had during its 90’s. That whole decade was fascinating and
was filled with hardships. Lot of things happened, which shaped the way India
is today.
The dawn of
1990 was not quite a start that India was looking forward to but the end justified
all the wrestle and grapple that India went through in that decade. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in the year
1991 by LTTE (Liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam) was enough to send a wave of mournfulness
and grief all over the nation. No one would have guessed that it was just a
start, a start of a tremendous journey the end of which was unknown to all of
us. The sole reason behind his assassination was said to be his involvement in the
Civil war which was on in Sri Lanka. The LTTE was afraid that if Rajiv Gandhi
came back to power, he would again support the Srilankan government, which in
the past didn’t work out in their favour. It was for the very first time when
the whole nation saw the live telecast of anyone’s funeral. The nation was
glued to their television sets to see their Prime Minister’s last rites. By the time India recovered from this heart
wrenching incident, the case of Babri Majid happened. In the year 1992, a mob,
politically motivated wrecked Babri Majid saying that it was built at a site,
which is considered as Ram Janm Bhumi (the place of lord Ram birth). This
incident brought differences between the Hindus and Muslims and no political
party ever wanted to get involved in it. This incident was marked as a black
day in the history of Indian culture which questioned its very diversity. At
the same time, India was also going through financial crises. The economy of
India was falling rigorously and the government needed to take tough decisions
to restrain the economy, hence the New Economic Policy by the then union
finance minister Manmohan Singh. The main focus of the New Economic policy were
Liberalization, privatization and Globalization and these reforms worked as a
foundation for the now steady and blossoming economy of India.
Our economy
was improving and somehow people were getting back to their normal lives but
then the Bombay Blasts shocked the whole nation. Some 12 consecutive blasts
resulted in 257 fatalities and left thousands with severe injuries. This attack
on Indian soil was planned by Dawood Ibrahim, who also had his name in the most
wanted list of USA and Interpol. No one could understand these inhumane acts
against humanity. Everyone was scared and maybe this is what those terrorist
wanted. This decade was proving to be a tragic one. Soon after Bombay blasts,
India was hit by Surat plague and Latur earthquake. Everything seemed to be
falling apart for the nation.
Then came the
year 1997, when India celebrated its 50th Independence Day. The day, India
earned after several sacrifices and efforts. The initial half century of
India’s independence did help people to forget the struggles of the past. Right
after celebrating its 50th anniversary of Independence Day, India became a
nuclear power in the year 1998, under the leadership of the late Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, who instead of worrying about sanctions, went forward towards
becoming world's next nuclear power. After formally announcing to the world
about its nuclear power basket, India faced a lot of criticism from the global
power, United States of America which asked India to give up its weapons of
mass destruction. However India's "no-first use" policy helped it to
gain back their trust again. In the year 1999, when India broke out against
Pakistan over boundary infiltration and violation of ceasefire, the nation
proved of its capability of keeping its word under any tempting situation and India's
credibility touched the peaks. The conflict went on for 2 months and India
recaptured all its posts in Kargil that were occupied by the Pakistan army.
India ended its overwhelming decade with this operation Vijay, where it won the
2 month long battle with flying colors.
India bid
its farewell to this eventful decade with a serene smile.
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