From demonetisation to Jayalalithaa's death, from Kanhaiya Kumar to Sri Sri Ravishankar, here's a look at how The Hindu 's cartoonists Keshav and Surendra depicted the year that was 2016.
Following is a list of most popular cartoons - chosen purely based on readers' choice!
1. While politicians and other personalities hail the move by the government to demonetise Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 notes, the common man is being crushed under the weight of what is thought to be an ill thought-out, ill executed move.
2. In February 2016, Kanhaiya Kumar, president of Jawaharlal Nehru University, was charged with sedition by the Delhi police for allegedly raising anti-India slogans in a student rally. Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest soon snowballed into a major political controversy and drew sharp reactions from opposition parties, teachers, students and academics - effectively adding on to other issues such as the Pathankot attack, markets slump and Rohith Vemula's suicide.
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3. Following the move to demonetise currency, the Modi government advocated digital payments, asking the country to move slowly towards a cashless economy. Such a situation is utopian, if not absurd, for people living in rural India, where the concept of apps and wallet money is yet to permeate completely.
4. The death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa left behind a power vacuum in the AIADMK. She left no political heir and but there is no one competent enough to take over the party.
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5. Heaping praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the surgical strikes across the LoC, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that Mr. Modi’s “56 inches” chest had now swelled to 100 inches.
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6. Following the move to demonetise currency, the government announced that an app had been launched to receive feedback on the policy and its effect. Far from being an honest feedback information system, the app was designed more as a tool for validation, consisting mostly of leading questions.
7. In March, the National Green Tribunal issued a notice to the Art of Living Foundation on a plea seeking stoppage of ongoing construction work on the flood plains of Yamuna, for an event by the foundation. Sri Sri Ravishankar was asked to submit all expenses, following which a Rs 4.75 crore was imposed.
160311 - Sri Sri and Art of Living
8. Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the people of India to bear with all inconveniences following his move to demonetise currency. The popular narrative was of how farmers, small vendors, daily wagers were told to be as "patriotic as the soldiers who are fighting on the borders." But in the fight for nationalism, poor people were getting most affected.
9. Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav launched a new political party called Swaraj India. Mr. Bhushan and Mr. Yadav had earlier called AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal “an anarchist”, after which they were sacked from the party in April last year.
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10. Opposition parties were stuck in a logjam after they called for a bandh protesting against the move by the government to demonetise currency.
