2010

review

Andhra Pradesh

YSR’s son Jagan Mohan Reddy was considered among the front-runners for the top job in the state after the untimely demise of his father YSR Reddy in September 2009 but surprisingly, the CM post went to low profile party loyalist, K Rosaiah.

This led to a defiant Jagan Mohan Reddy going against party’s will with his Odarpu Yatras this year which was his show of strength to put pressure on the high-command. Congress tried its best to contain this dissidence but to no avail. The final blow came when Sakshi TV, a channel Jagan owns, ran an hour long programme slamming Sonia Gandhi for the ‘sorry state of affairs’ in Congress and the next day criticised Rahul Gandhi too.

As pressure on both Congress high command and K Rosaiah grew to address concerns of Jagan and also the Telangana lobby, Kiran Reddy was appointed CM.

But with this step of the Congress, apart from its refusal to grant permission to Jagan to hold his Odarpu Yatra, the rift was out in open and the last ditch efforts by his uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy to broker a peace deal led to a rift in the Reddy family. Finally, in a long expected move, Jagan, along with his mother, resigned from the party. He is now set to launch his own political party which may be called YSR Congress.

TV reality shows

The union I& B Ministry contemplated slapping regulatory orders on TV reality shows like ‘Emotional Atyachar’, ‘Roadies’, ‘Splitsvilla’ after cracking a whip on ‘ Bigg Boss 4’ and Rakhi ka Insaf’.

WikiLeaks: Secrets & shake-ups

WikiLeaks, a whistle-blowing website, has successfully established itself as a platform where sensitive/secretive material from governments and other high-profile organisations are published. At the end of November, it started releasing thousands of sensitive diplomatic cables sent by US embassies across the world to Washington. The cables revealed the US diplomats’ view about governments across the world, their leaders (including US allies), on major issues etc. Just before the release and in the days after the expose, the website faced numerous cyber attacks and was forced to change domain names and use mirror sites. Its founder, Julian Assange was slapped with rape accusations, Interpol notice and much more, had to finally surrender before the UK police. He was freed on bail after nine days in jail and denounced what he called a smear campaign against him. Many described it as an assault against the freedom of the press.

Earlier, in October the site had published some 400,000 secret US military logs which detailed its operations in Iraq. The Iraq logs came soon after almost 90,000 classified military records, released on the site, explained the military strategy in Afghanistan. In April 2010 too, WikiLeaks had released a video which showed a US Apache helicopter killing at least 12 people - including two Reuters journalists - during an attack in Baghdad in 2007.

Climate Change at camp Cancun

The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP16/CMP6), which was held in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December, ended inconclusively and almost put the final nail on Kyoto Protocol’s coffin. Delegates from 194 countries deliberated to bring about a consensus to mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce emission of greenhouse gases.

Outcome

# A non-binding agreement was clinched at the final moments, with pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions made by rich countries were put into documentation and developing countries agreeing to cut their emissions.

# A $100 billion a year `Green Climate Fund` was set up to transfer money from the developed to developing world to adapt to climate change.

# Transfer of clean technology between countries and inspection of emissions cuts.

# There was no agreement on extending the landmark Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012.

# US stood by its stand and said it will not commit to legally binding commitment on climate change until it is done by countries like India and China.

# Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh reiterated Indian`s stand on global agreements as they impose mandates on the developing world but would consider a binding agreement in the future under an appropriate legal form, so that India is not to be isolated in any of these international forums and it has a larger stake in the world economy today.

IPCC controversy

# A furore ensued after it was reported that the IPCC`s assessment of the melting of Himalayan glaciers and its estimated disappearance by 2035, was false. The IPCC acknowledged that the finding was based on a quote given to journalists, which caused a severe damage to the reputation of the IPCC and its chief RK Pachauri, with demands of his resignation and allegations that he was embezzling funds. He later came out clean, though.