2002 in India


Events in the year 2002 in the Republic of India.

Incumbents

Governors

Events

  • National income - 24,926,138 million

January - March

  • 9 January – The government announces that it is laying landmines along the entire length of its 2,800-km border with Pakistan.
  • 10 January – 800 protesters are arrested in a large-scale illegal protest against the Communist government of West Bengal, which brings the state to a standstill. The authorities there had outlawed "disruptive" protests at the end of 2001.
  • Mid-January – Direct flights to China are set to resume for the first time in 40 years after diplomatic talks between the two countries.
  • 16 January – Archaeologists announce the discovery of ancient man-made structures off the Gujarati coast which could be as many as 9,500 years old – 5,500 years older than the ancient Harappan civilisation whose remains are found around the same region.
  • 22 January – Five policemen are killed and 20 other people injured when Islamic militants attack an American cultural centre in Kolkata. Police arrest at least 50 suspects in the wake of the incident. The government immediately accuses its Pakistani counterpart of involvement in the attack.
  • Late January – The government is roundly criticised for testing a short-range version of its Agni ballistic missile on 25 January, the day before the country's Republic Day, at a time when military tensions with Pakistan remain high.
  • 3 February – Russia gives its full backing to India over the Kashmir dispute with neighbouring Pakistan.
  • Mid-February – The Cellular Operators Association announces that the ownership of mobile phones in India rocketed by 75% in the previous year. Almost 6 million Indians now own mobile phones.
  • 24 February – The Bharatiya Janata Party loses control of state governments in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttaranchal according to election results released this day. The BJP is expected to retain a role in a coalition in U.P., whereas the Punjab and Uttaranchal state legislatures are now dominated by the opposition Congress party.
  • 27 February – One of the worst violence unleashed against Muslims after 59 Hindu pilgrims killed aboard a fire in a train allegedly started by a local Muslim mob in Godhra.
  • 28 February –
  • *2002 Gujarat violence: Three day violence against Muslim community in the city of Ahmedabad, Gujarat and surroundings begins leaving over 500 dead. The violence came after the death the previous day of 58 who died in Godhra, near Vadodara.
  • *Gulbarg Society massacre: During the 2002 Gujarat riots, a mob attacked the Gulbarag Society, a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Chamanpura, Ahmedabad. Most of the houses were burnt, and at least 35 victims including a former Congress Member of Parliament Ehsan Jafri, were burnt alive, while 31 others went missing after the incident, later presumed dead, bringing the total of the dead to 69.
  • *Naroda Patiya massacre.
  • *Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presents the 2002–03 budget. Amongst its major features are a 4.8% increase in defence spending and a 5% surcharge on income tax to pay for this.
  • 1 March – Continuing violence in Ahmedabad kills 28; police shoot and kill 5 rioters.
  • 2 March – J. Jayalalithaa returns to power in Tamil Nadu as chief minister. In December 2001, an appeals court had quashed her October 2000 corruption conviction that disqualified her from standing for election.
  • 3 March – The speaker of the Lok Sabha, Ganti Mohana Chandra Balayogi, died in a helicopter crash in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. He was the first low-caste Dalit to be elected to the post.
  • 4 March Bilkis Bano case
  • 6 March – Novelist Arundhati Roy, a high-profile campaigner against the Narmada River dams project, is sentenced by the Supreme Court to one day in prison for contempt of court because of an affidavit she had written criticising the court.
  • 8 March – President's rule is imposed on the northern state of Uttar Pradesh as no party could command a majority after the recent elections.
  • 15 March – 9,000 suspected Hindu hardliners are arrested, including 8,000 in Mumbai alone, in a massive crackdown aimed at preventing further interreligious violence. Tensions are high surrounding attempts to construct a new Hindu temple on the site of the Ayodhya mosque, which was destroyed by Hindu extremists in 1992.
  • 15 March – The New Delhi High Court overturns the October 2000 corruption conviction of former prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao.
  • 25 March – Police arrest Yasin Malik, leader of the separatist Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, in Srinagar.
  • 26 March – The government pushes through its controversial Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance bill in a rare joint session of both houses of parliament, only the third since independence. In separate sessions, the Lok Sabha had passed the bill on 18 March but it was defeated in the Rajya Sabha on 21 March.

April - June

July - December

Births

  • 18 February – Manu Bhaker, Indian Olympian.
  • 18 February - Bharani Bahhe, Polyglot, Influencer.

Full date unknown

Deaths