India's Top Political Controversies in 2023

As the largest democracy in the world, India is a country with a lot of political activity and controversies.

However, the political controversies mainly revolve around elections as the country witnesses various polls throughout the year and now almost all the political parties are directly or indirectly involved in it.

Sputnik India brings out the top political controversies in the country that have been the talk of the town throughout the year.

The year 2023 began with a major controversy surrounding the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), its chief and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, as the country's top wrestlers accused him of sexual harassment of female wrestlers.

Ace wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshee Malikkh staged a massive protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi in January against Singh, who denied all the allegations.

The protest, which began on 18 January, ended on 21 January after the Federal Ministry of Sport intervened.

In June, the wrestlers met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the government later announced that elections would be held to elect a new wrestling federation.

The elections were held in December, but after the wrestlers expressed their concerns regarding the election of the new WFI chief, the newly elected body was dissolved and the Sports Ministry wrote a letter to the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to form a panel to run the wrestling federation.

As of now, the matter relating to the allegations against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is in court and the decision is awaited.

The month of February sparked another major political controversy when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested the then Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) politician Manish Sisodia in connection with alleged irregularities in the now scrapped liquor policy.

AAP MP Sanjay Singh was also arrested by the ED in connection with the liquor policy case, and recently, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal was also summoned by the ED to appear for questioning.

So far, he has skipped the summons twice and left for a 10-day Vipassana meditation camp. Now he is likely to receive a fresh notice from the ED, after which he could be arrested.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi's disqualification as a parliamentarian triggered another major controversy in the month of March.

He was disqualified as a parliamentarian after a Surat court ruled on his 2019 remark, in which he made a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He was then sentenced to two years in jail, but later the Supreme Court of India stayed the decision and Gandhi's membership as a parliamentarian was reinstated.

At least 26 like-minded political parties came together and announced a new opposition bloc called the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (I.N.D.I.A.) in July.

The political parties that came together included the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Janata Dal United (JDU) and several others.

Despite several meetings, the newly formed alliance has not been able to finalise the seat-sharing formula and the lack of coordination among the members of the alliance was evident in the recently held assembly elections in five states as the BJP managed to form the government in three states while the Congress managed to win only one.

Due to the lack of coordination in the newly formed opposition bloc, political pundits are not confident about the future of the alliance.

Another major political controversy was over the renaming of India to 'Bharat'. It began when President Droupadi Murmu sent invitations to G-20 delegates as 'President of Bharat' instead of 'President of India'.

The newly formed opposition bloc claimed that this was a violation of the Constitution and that the government had done this deliberately because their opposition bloc's name was I.N.D.I.A.

Meanwhile, the federal government defended itself, with federal minister Anurag Thakur dismissing the allegations and saying they were just "rumours".

The year 2023 ended with a major controversy involving members of the opposition parties after 146 MPs were suspended for disrupting the proceedings of Parliament following a major security breach.

All were arrested and charged under the stringent anti-terrorism Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A total of six people have been arrested in connection with the incident. A detailed investigation is underway to get to the bottom of the matter.

The 146 opposition MPs were suspended from the House as they created a ruckus demanding a statement on the incident from Union Home Minister Amit Shah.