Tiananmen Shame

A visit by Mikhail Gorbachev to Peking (now Beijing) brought hundreds of students demanding democracy in China to Tiananmen Square. Once there, the students stayed put for seven weeks refusing to leave until democratic reform was set in place. Deng Xiaoping, whose leadership was looking shaky, ordered troops to rush to Tiananmen Square late on June 3, 1989. Tanks rumbled in from many directions, and fired without provocation on unarmed protestors. A lone civilian's stand in front of a tank provided the best-known image of protest, but several hundred demonstrators were shot dead by the Chinese army in an appalling show of brute power.

Babri Masjid Razed

Again, Narasimha Rao at the centre of shame. As prime minister, Rao sat still as hordes of rightwing fanatics from the VHP, RSS, and BJP brought the Babri Masjid down on December 6, 1992, with whatever tools they could lay their hands on. Kalyan Singh, the joyous BJP Chief Minister, who supervised the operation, is today virtually an outcast. As always, barely anyone was punished for the crime. Many BJP leaders from that time are still active, while Rao is dead, unconvincing till the end in his denials. The Congress took a beating for this, and it led to the consolidation of the smaller Samajwadi party, which walked away with secular approval.

Nigeria Hangs Profit-Poet

Nigerian dictator, Gen Sani Abacha, did exactly as he pleased when he ordered the execution by hanging of writer and human rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others in 1995. Saro-Wiwa and friends were taken in chains to prison and hanged. Abacha planted four cases of murder on them and called them killers and murderers. In truth Saro-Wiwa was opposing the oil industry in southern Nigeria, saying oil majors were polluting his homeland and preventing members of his tribe, the Ogoni, from getting a fair share of oil profits. Abacha was afraid that Saro-Wiwa would drive Shell away. The hangings forced the Commonwealth to expel Nigeria. Abacha died soon after, and his Defence Chief Major General Abdulsalami Abubakar subsequently rose to power. By 1999, Saro Wiwa was forgotten and Nigeria was back in the Commonwealth.

Mumbai: 1 motive, 200 dead

It was cold revenge at its diabolic worst. Thirsting to get back after the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid and the anti-Muslim riots in January 1993, a group of militants guided by Dawood Ibrahim set off serial blasts in March 1993 in Mumbai, India's financial capital. At least 200 people died and 800 were injured after 13 bombs exploded within 75 minutes of each other across Mumbai.

The first bomb went off at 1.25 pm at the Bombay Stock Exchange. The blast occurred in the basement garage and blew up more than 30 cars and shattered windows. The Air India headquarters was bombed, as were the Bank of Oman , government offices, banks, cinemas, bazaars, two hospitals, a university and several hotels. The attacks on Mumbai were seen as retaliation for anti-Muslim riots in the city two months earlier, in which left more than 500 people died and over 40,000 left the city. The blasts divided the Mumbai underworld with Hindu dons parting from Dawood and swearing revenge for targeting Hindus.

Taliban Takes Control

The rise of the most regressive and militant Islamic group in the world, the Taliban, was formally completed when they gained the stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan. Pakistan was the first to recognise the Taliban on May 25, 1997, followed by Saudi Arabia on May 26 and the UAE on May 27. It was the start of a horrific rule for five years that ended only when the US attacked Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11.

The Taliban was led by one eyed preacher Mullah Mohammad Omar who picked on the discontent in the country in the aftermath of Communist rule. Rapes, looting, and murder were staple diet as Afghanistan slipped rapidly into savagery. Omar and his band of followers handed out ruthless punishment in the beginning, before losing control later. Omar is still at large, like his old friend bin Laden. Michael Moore's Farenheit 911, shockingly said, Bush had business contacts with the bin Laden's. Curiously, Bush hasn't had much explaining to do for failing to nab Laden.

5-city hijack to safety

Indian Airlines flight IC 814 from Kathmandu was hijacked in December 1999. By the time the ordeal ended after eight days, the flight had hopped to Amritsar, Lahore, Dubai, and Kandahar in Afghanistan. The then NDA government escorted three Kashmiri militants to Kandahar in exchange for the safety of the hostages. Prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee allowed Jaswant Singh to greet the released hostages. But for that the three released terrorists had to fly with Jaswant.

In effect, India's Foreign Minister personally escorted three murderous terrorists. Singh further embarrassed himself on the tarmac at Kandahar by hugging the Taliban leadership and parading arm-in-arm with the thugs who then ran Afghanistan. By the time, late at night on December 31, Jaswant and the released hostages landed in Delhi, public opinion was mixed. There was relief that the passengers on IC 814 were safe. But there was widespread revulsion over Jaswant Singh's behaviour and a growing sense that India had surrendered to blackmail. Till today, there is no coherent hijack policy, though there is increasing debate of late on what to do.

Mush, President?

If it weren't true, this could have hit the fiction bestsellers list. Pakistan Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf gets fired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1999. While Sharif 's plane is on its way to Islamabad, Musharraf carries out a coup ousting Sharif. Musharraf suspends the Constitution as well. Seven months later, the Pakistan Supreme Court validates the coup.

By June 2001, Musharraf names himself President. Taken aback, the then US President Bill Clinton later claimed his plans to get to Osama bin Laden through millions of dollars in pay-off s to the Sharif Government collapsed with the coup. This was bizarre because the Sharif government backed the Taliban and bin Laden. Musharraf too supported the Taliban until the 9/11 attack when it became easier for him to side with the US instead.

Fodder for scam

The case was first unearthed in 1996, after the police found that money was being fraudulently withdrawn from the state treasury and shown as expenditure on animal fodder. The Patna High Court asked the CBI to inquire. It was discovered that close to Rs.9.5 billion was thus looted from the treasury. A total of 61 cases were filed in which Laloo Prasad was accused in nine cases. Laloo Yadav was jailed at least four times, and he was forced to resign as Bihar chief minister. He made his wife chief minister and continued to rule by proxy. The scam was an embarrassment because it dealt with something so low as fodder, and it showed Laloo in very poor light. It still rankles.

Bushwhacked

The first one in 2000 was the wackiest election in memory, like the Wild West minus the guns. Al Gore, the so-earnest-that-he's-boring Democrat, won more votes that George W. Bush, the did-you say-rules Republican. Anywhere else that was a victory. Here, he lost. After endless recounting, postal ballot furors, allegations of rigging, and Bush's brother Jeb coming to his rescue in Florida, there was still no winner. Finally, the US Supreme Court entered the picture and voted 5-4 in favour of Bush. It took more than a month after voting day for the US to have a president. CNN got so tired that it began each news bulletin with an apology for not still having a president in place.

India's election process suddenly began looking respectable after this. Gore didn't recover from the blow, while the world was to reel under Bush's onslaught. This wasn't the end, however. Bush won again in 2004, though few countries in the world wanted him to. He managed to stoke a level of opposition rarely seen, some hated him for his invasion of Iraq, but he still won by the largest number of popular votes in the history of United States.

In a rare flourish, Bush's vice-presidential running mate Dick Cheney called him the man who met his moment in history. There was no running away; the man who almost didn't become president in 2000 was now writing his own rules. Among the first things he did was to seal a nuclear deal with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, an agreement that threatened to alter the equations in the nuclear club. One of the most influential American presidents whose vision will be debated for years, Bush remains in our hearts.

House Under Attack

On December 13, 2001, terrorists attacked India's Parliament just after both Houses had adjourned for the day at 11.45 am. Five terrorists came in an Ambassador car with fake labels that got them past the security check. They took a wrong-turn and hit a barrier. A full-fledged gun battle ensued for 45 minutes in which the five terrorists and nine security personnel were killed. The terrorists, later identifyed as Pakistani nationals, were dressed in commando fatigues and used AK-47 rifles, explosives, and grenades for the attack. Over 200 Members of Parliament were inside the Central Hall of Parliament when the attack took place. Sonia Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee were also around.

WTC is Plane-Bombed

Pick what you will; this was a montage to tear your heart apart. The shock and awe as gaping mouths watched the planes smash into the twin towers, the rending last words from cell phones on board the planes, the last act of plummeting from the buildings in desperate hope, the keeling over of the magnify cent towers, the final act of bravery as firemen rush to their doom, and the searing Michael Moore film Fahrenheit 9/11 that made us cringe us all over again.

Osama bin Laden's attack on the US changed world history, and provoked the US into its war on terror that in turn triggered great hostility between sections of the Western and the Islamic worlds. Generations to come might yet feel the effects of this single worst act of terror on planet earth. Nothing, it appears, will stem the hostility. The divisions are deep enough to worry. Neither the United States nor Islamic militants are in a mood to stop. Can the resentment ever lessen?