Year in review: Major political events that captured imagination in 2023

The year 2023 was punctuated by a slew of political developments – from nine states going for Assembly polls and the formation of the INDIA bloc to the Supreme Court’s verdict on Article 370 abrogation and the Congress’ winning streak in the south while the BJP consolidating its position in the Hindi heartland.

Major political parties settled the raging freebies versus welfarism debate, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi sparked with his 'revdi' remark midway through the previous year. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress pursued competitive welfarism with a vengeance in the last 12 months, promising the electorate a raft of welfare schemes during poll campaigns in the nine states.

Welfarism and the outreach of political parties to women dominated the discourse. In 2023, both the BJP and the Congress wooed women as a distinct vote bank like never before. Initially, the Congress' pro-women 'guarantees' garnered better support from female voters than during the Karnataka Assembly polls in April-May.

However, in his Independence Day address, the prime minister indicated a shift. He addressed the people as his "parivarjan", or family members and spoke of women-led development and his government's aim of creating "two crore Lakhpati Didis". A month later, in September, he led the way in getting a special session of Parliament to pass the Women's Reservation Bill. By December, the BJP reaped the rewards by registering victories in the three Hindi heartland states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

According to data compiled by a Delhi-based think tank, at least four per cent more women voted for the BJP than the Congress in the Hindi heartland states.

The nine assembly polls held in 2023 saw more women turning out to vote, although their representation in Parliament and assemblies remains poor. "Voting is the beginning of the assimilation in the policy system, and the process has started, but the contours of women's constituency are yet to emerge clearly," said Usha Thakkar, a retired professor and co-author of 'Women in State Politics in India'. Women activists have termed cash transfers and other pro-women schemes "carrots of promises for women voters in lieu of real representation".

The question of women's safety and security remained unresolved in 2023. The beginning of the year saw women wrestlers protesting in the cold at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar in January, alleging sexual harassment by BJP Lok Sabha member Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The video clips of atrocities on women coming out of violence-hit Manipur shocked the nation. The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, released earlier this month, revealed a sharp surge in crimes against women in 2022 over the previous two years.

Opposition unity

For the Congress, the year began with hope. The party credited its leader Rahul Gandhi's 135-day 4,080-km Bharat Jodo Yatra for poll its victories in Himachal and Karnataka. Buoyed by its success, the Congress recently announced the yatra’s second leg Bharat Nyaya Yatra. If the Congress had reasons to believe that it finally had Modi's measure after its Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka wins, the BJP’s sweep of Hindi heartland states forced the party and the rest of the Opposition back to the drawing board to come up with an alternative narrative to challenge their rival.

The Congress' raised the caste census demand, but it did not deliver the anticipated public support. The BJP responded to the caste census demands by appointing leaders from diverse castes as its chief ministers (CM) and deputy CMs in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. The prime minister has also urged people to look at the bigger story of deprivation and go beyond individual castes, identifying women, youth, the poor, and farmers as the four varnas. By the end of the year, the Opposition’s enthusiasm at the launch of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), which held its first meeting in June in Patna, was found waning.

The year also saw parliamentary proceedings touching a new low with BJP's Lok Sabha member Ramesh Bidhuri spewing offensive remarks against Bahujan Samaj Party's Danish Ali. It was also marked by the suspension of an unprecedented 146 Opposition MPs during the winter session for demanding a statement from Home Minister Amit Shah on the December 13 security breach in the Lok Sabha. Earlier in March, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha after a court in Gujarat convicted him on a plea by a BJP member.

The other major highlights were the Lok Sabha expelling Trinamool Congress party’s leader Mahua Moitra during the winter session. The Opposition also alleged surveillance after an Apple alert. The Centre banned a BCC documentary on Gujarat in January. The tax authorities raided the BBC office in India in February.

The broadcaster later acknowledged it paid lower taxes in India. The year also saw the Supreme Court vindicating Parliament's August 2019 decision to repeal Article 370 of the Constitution, which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The Law Commission and some states, such as Uttarakhand, initiated discussions on the Uniform Civil Code, part of the BJP's unfinished core agenda. Parliament approved replacing three colonial-era criminal laws, the Centre instituting a committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind to look at 'one nation, one election' and a debate on whether India should be exclusively known as 'Bharat'.

As 2013 was ending, political leaders were keen to appoint their successors, with Bahujan Samaj Party's Mayawati anointing her nephew Akash Anand to look after the party's affairs, while in Odisha, former civil servant VK Pandian emerging as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's number two. The BJP's leadership cut down to size its regional satraps like Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan, as did the Congress by removing Kamal Nath as its Madhya Pradesh unit chief, but only after the horses had bolted.

The Aam Aadmi Party, the most successful political startup of recent decades, found the going tough as its leaders faced corruption cases and were jailed.

The year also had the BJP cadre extol the prime minister for hosting the G20 Summit, and it is ending with the party mobilising its workers to make the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya a success. With the BJP winning Assembly polls in the Hindi heartland and the Congress in Karnataka and Telangana, sparking a north versus south debate, 2024 could answer whether the BJP makes inroads in the south and among minorities.