M.R.Lalu
Time has come to say goodbye to an action-packed year 2024. It has been full of events. Wars, migrations, rebellions, politics and many more factors have shaken our life this year. In reality, we will have similar situations decorating our life throughout the next year as well. Every New Year comes with great jubilation and wonder and the euphoria is always afresh and same as we welcome it. There are escalating expectations and courage and positivity as we prepare for the New Year. But there is no escape from the remorseful memories of the past. They keep haunting for a period. Of course time, for obvious reasons, would eliminate all those good and bad memories. Time is the wound and it is also the healer.
While life for every individual is a mix of desperations, aspirations and realizations playing on the same frame of time; years, months and days are mere columns on the calendars. The experiences we have been through would stay with us eternally and they would build our fundamental nature brick by brick. We would rarely find anybody whose life is not drastically impacted by the ripples and waves of the current they create. We experience failure of attempts that are intended to bring good fortunes and we stay mentally dismantled and disheveled at the unethical success of ruthless people. We often see the fall of goodness among regimes while waves of wars rage across countries and continents. Innocent lives buried under the wreckages of settlements will remind us once again about the absence of sympathy, compassion and goodness. Still expectation, merriment and absolute hope hover over the wrap of man’s insensitivity as we welcome the New Year.
Probably, we will watch in dismay as prominent rulers and their regimes get overturned with millions being displaced and perished in the years to come. New fortunes and hazards will knock our doors but there will also be the marginalized who will continue to be haunted by disaster and miseries. Migration in millions will change the demographic equations. New narratives will strengthen conspiracies. International players will lead narrative wars to stay relevant. What difference does it make when we still get enmeshed in the ‘used to’ situations of our day-to-today affairs? Neither the previous year nor the present one makes a difference. As for the passing year, it was full of unprecedented developments. There have been swift and unexpected regime changes in many countries. A year of elections, 2024 witnessed the disappearance of prominent governments and the fall of tall leaders. Though the opposition predicted a drastic fall for the Modi government, his regime managed to survive with a compulsory coalition emerging among unfriendly collaborators stitching a deal. For the BJP and its leadership, the election outcome was a shattering mandate. The Congress, though decimated, was jubilant on the devastation that the Modi regime was shaken with.
Neighboring Pakistan continued to perish politically and economically while women folk in Afghanistan struggled for basic education and freedom. Sri Lanka supported a regime change with Anura Kumara Dissanayake winning the mandate. China continued to remain aggressive with its neighbors. By the end of the year, it diluted its stand on its border dispute with India. Things seem to get better between the dragon and the elephant. Brutal dictatorship was eliminated in Syria while Bashar-Al-Assad took asylum in Russia with his ideological sympathizer Vladimir Putin giving him a comfortable shelter. What happened in our neighborhood Bangladesh was startling as well as ruthless. A students’ rebellion toppled an elected government forcing Sheik Hasina to vacate her country and seek asylum in India. Even brutality was ashamed of the wrath it had on the hapless minorities. The world and its media maniacs stood mute as the bloodshed and cruelty raged on the streets. The civil war in Sudan continued sending millions homeless and helpless. Russia’s offensive on Ukraine continued for the third year with thousands of people being killed and wounded and displaced. Above all, the climatic conditions across the globe kept warning humanity for its insensitive intervention in damaging the planet. Year 2024 will go down as the hottest year on record.
The world also witnessed the greatest political comeback in America. The U.S Presidential Election results got Donald Trump back to work with his Republican Party bagging the mandate. World’s oldest democracy once again failed to bring a woman to the helm of affairs, probably depicting its reluctance to share equal space and respect for the feminine. An estimated 4 billion people went to the polls in 76 countries this year with half of the world’s population putting values of democracy under scrutiny. Amid all these democratic experiments there has also been a portion of the global population being forced out of their homes. As per a United Nations statistics, right now 1 in 5 children worldwide are either living in or fleeing from war. As per the organization, raging violence on a rapid scale has curtailed its efficiency in delivering humanitarian support to the sufferers. There have also been floods and natural calamities taking peace and prosperity away from people. Deadly heat waves, extreme weather conditions such as flood and wild fire continued to unveil the fragility of the planet. There have also been imposed restrictions and penury on people by radicalized religious interventions.
January 20, 2025 would certainly stay relevant as the new Trump regime would begin to impact a new world order. Political conditions in India would remain absolutely stormy as new states would rally for the election process. Domestic elections in the country’s capital would keep the political heat high. Though the Modi regime seems to have a fine sailing at present, political equations and opportunist behavior of leaders from across the coalition spectrum might shake it literally. The Prime Minister is all set to maintain his popularity index to the next year while a desperate opposition would attempt to desert, deviate and dismantle his initiatives. More and more political indoctrination might break the democratic sensitivity of leaders, who, sensing opportunity and prominence can jump ships. Radical initiatives at the governmental level might drive forces of desperation to deliberately cause hiccups of disruption. Though these are some of the factors that year 2025 would have an impact on, as a country, we need to justifiably mobilize our resources for the welfare of humanity. As we get ready to embrace 2025, our biggest concern should be about the children, the growing generation. We have to be more sensible and intellectually focused while dealing with their aspirations. Most importantly they have to be helped from being swept away by the current of disruptive elements mushrooming along. A New Year with new hopes, aspirations and attitude would definitely break the ecosystem of aggression and chaos and that holds the key to welcoming it with enthusiasm.
—M.R.Lalu
(Author and Freelance Journalist)