NEW DELHI: No, you’re not reading the headline wrong. While 2013’s POTY title had quite a few contenders who, in no small way, contributed to making the year interesting, the contest came down to

and

. Both dominated the headlines as well as the national consciousness, but it was the aam aadmi who walked away with the title for changing the very idea of what a politician and a political party should be.

Arvind Kejriwal: Person of The Year

(By Avijit Ghosh)

(With inputs from bureaus in New Delhi, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kochi, Ranchi, Guwahati)

2. Narendra Modi: The Name's M

3.

Virat Kohli: Coming to the four

( By Partha Bhaduri)

4. Raghuram Rajan: Guv to Luv

(By Surojit Gupta and Mayur Shetty)

5. Aam aurat: The rising

(By Malini Nair)

6.

: Rarest of the rare

7. Deepika Padukone: Box-office leela

8. Ashok khemka: Babuji, fast chale

9.

Durga Sakthi Nagpal: The mafia slayer

Narendra Dabholkar: Star rationalist

Also read

In a country of 1.2 billion, choosing Person of The Year can be as tough as getting Manmohan Singh to smile. But when you push Narendra Modi off the front pages and primetime television, when you force Rahul Gandhi into hyperactive mode on the corruption issue, and when you shut up rivals who called you “monsoon pests” and “unelectable” by becoming chief minister after starting a party only a year ago, it’s actually a no-contest.But nothing stated above can really explain the enormity of Arvind Kejriwal’s impact over the national mindscape these days. Who would have thought that the fate of Delhi’s election would be so closely followed by the rest of India? It was, as if, everyone was awaiting the outcome of a major laboratory experiment that had the potential to alter everyone’s fate.To his fans, and the tribe is growing every day, Kejriwal is the creator of a new matrix of clean politics, without the traditional baggage of caste, community, religion and region. To them, he is a radical minus the slogans; someone who can battle and eliminate corruption, and improve everyday lives. Even his foes are realizing now that he is perhaps more than a cocky peddler of impossible dreams that they made him out to be; rather, he is emblematic of an idea whose time has come. As sociologist Dipankar Gupta says, “Kejriwal and his party have sought to exorcise the society from corruption and help the disempowered exercise what they have been disentitled from.”Undeniably, the 45-year-old former IRS officer’s public conduct has altered the very idea of what a politician and a political party should be. At a time when red beacons typify the vulgarity of power and when Z-security is seen as a status symbol, he has refused both. The Aam Aadmi Party , which he leads, has set benchmarks for participative democracy, making common people feel valued. AAP volunteers have gone door to door asking people what they wanted to be included in the manifesto. “Political parties deal in creating distances. Kejriwal has reduced distances between the politician and the people,” says columnist Santosh Desai. When the tricky question of forming a government with Congress support cropped up, the mechanical engineer from IIT, Kharagpur wanted the people to decide by posting their response through SMS, website, phone calls and jan sabhas.Who could have even dreamt something like this would ever happen?His methods have been astonishingly inventive. Social scientist Shiv Viswanathan says, “Right from the way he has handled cadres, used available finance and set up the campaign, he has displayed creative imagination.” Adds Desai, “It’s remarkable the way he has mobilized ordinary people to press for legislation, the way he has used traditional as well as social media and the way he shifted gears from activism to electoral politics in such a short period.” That’s why Kejriwal and AAP are setting the terms of the political debate and forcing rivals to change their behaviour. When BJP came out with posters with the catchline, ‘Shasak nahi, sevak’ (servants, not rulers) during the Delhi assembly polls, it was evident that AAP effect was at work.Risk-taking seems part of Kejriwal’s DNA. The story goes that his father wanted him to apply to all engineering colleges but he took the gamble of only applying to IIT. When he decided to face off with Sheila Dixit in the polls, everybody thought he was taking a huge risk. But in the end, Kejriwal’s daring paid off; he polled more votes than both Dixit and BJP’s Vijender Gupta together.Senior AAP leader and long-time associate Manish Sisodia, narrates an incident which occurred around 2000 to give an insight into Kejriwal’s mind. “Those days we used to distribute pamphlets outside the office of Delhi Jal Board . One day, DJB officials asked us to move our table away from the main gate. Most of us were willing to comply. But Arvind stood his ground. He just said, if we are not doing anything wrong, why should we move elsewhere? Ultimately, we won.”Part of Kejriwal’s appeal lies in his streetfighting approach, directness and “an anti-VIP swagger.” As a public speaker, the Hissar-born Kejriwal has a relaxed, conversational style though he holds no punches. At a recent award ceremony, he was blunt enough to say, “The Congress is our B team now and we will make BJP our C team.”Fashionistas may frown at his (lack of) sartorial sense, including the way he wraps the muffler over his head, but it drives home the message, “I am one of you.” As Gupta says, “He is being seen as a symbol of ordinary middle-class India. His style, dress and language are indicative of that. He has the looks of the neighbourhood kid who can be trusted.”There is no talk about changing the world; only altering your life and your neighbourhood. His promises are straight: lower power bills, free 700 litres of water and a Jan Lokpal Bill tough enough to give sleepless nights to every corrupt politician and official. Desai says, “He dismantles abstract ideas into graspable actions. He doesn’t deal with grand visions, but specific issues with a high degree of commitment. Like a woodpecker, he keeps chipping away at the edifice.”“There is no single turning point in Arvind’s career,” says Sisodia. He took long leave from IRS to work on Parivartan, an NGO he started in 2000. Quitting IRS, the Magsaysay Award the Jan Lokpal agitation, the formation of AAP…these were all important landmarks. But he always had total clarity in whatever he did. “Many party workers had doubts over the formation of AAP in 2012. But Arvind was absolutely clear all along. We have to do it and we must do it, he said,” Sisodia reveals.An eminent civil society activist, who preferred not to be named, points out that while Kejriwal is great at motivating party workers, he isn’t as adept at functioning with other civil society groups and being part of a larger team. “He has firm belief in his own methods and style and sticks to them. It is good to be stubborn but you should never stop listening to others. Otherwise, it becomes my way or highway kind of approach,” the activist says.However, talking to ordinary people in towns such as Ranchi, Guwahati, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram and Jaipur, one gets the impression that most have immense faith in Kejriwal’s ability and sincerity. Not everybody, though, believes he can deliver on his poll promises under the circumstances. They see him as a man who has “redefined politics” as Sahir Hussain, a Guwahati lawyer, says, or “a proponent of change” as M R Ajith of Thiruvananthapuram puts it.The Kejriwal narrative is still a work in progress. Desai says, political commentators and social scientists are yet to fully comprehend the phenomenon because they haven’t come across anyone like him before. He’s probably right. After all, how many of us know of a middle-aged diabetic who fasts 15 days in an act of civil disobedience?Narendra Modi’s brief, devoid of any trace of modesty, for the BJP media team dur ing a strategy session was simple enough: Their sales pitch, he said, should present him as a no-nonsense, business-like leader.The Gujarat chief minister is not known to lack self-belief. But even keeping in mind his audacious record, Modi has set himself a tough task of powering BJP to a winning position is the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.To ensure that the BJP crosses a 180-seat threshold and attracts regional allies, Modi and his party must beat geographical and political barriers and shake off an inertia that has gripped the party at the central level after it lost power in 2004.He needs to convince skeptics that he is not complicit in the 1,044 deaths officially recorded in the 2002 riots and his emotive expression of “grief” and “agony” 11 years later is not a canny makeover.The trial court’s rejection of a plea to reo pen investigations against him in a riot case spells huge relief for BJP’s PM candidate. On the back of the party’s thumping wins in MP, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, it sets the stage for his final charge.Since his candidature was announced on September 13, amid a futile revolt by L K Advani, the hype around Modi has certainly intensified, aided by his gamble of extensively campaigning for the assembly polls.Suddenly, the man who was India’s least wanted seems to have lost much of his pariah status as diplomats and industrialists line up at his doorstep and eager, responsive crowds throng his rallies in thousands.Brushing aside the charge of being historically incorrect in his speeches, Modi has thrived on being politically incorrect, targeting Congress’s first family with barbs.Looking to fan public anger over corruption scandals, inflation and slothful governance, Modi is the outsider eyeing a vulnerable “Delhi Sultanate”. Ending second best in 2014 will be cold comfort.In a year in which he smashed one ODI record after another, Virat Kohli made his most significant statement in a Test match. As India braced for the daunting task of going up against world No 1 South Africa in their backyard, Kohli was asked to bat at No 4 – a slot previously occupied by a man many consider the greatest cricketer of all time.If that wasn’t a big enough challenge, Kohli also had to contend with the most hostile pace attack now operating in cricket, on a pitch very different from the batsman-friendly Indian tracks on which he had just slaughtered an Australian attack rendered impotent by fielding restrictions in ODIs. Was he nervous? Far from it. He claims to have been “desperate” to bat at No 4 following the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar.Five riveting days later, Kohli had walked the talk – and how. He got his highest Test score so far — 119 – in the first innings, and followed it up with 96 in the next. He thus came within four runs of getting two tons in a Test at No. 4, something no Indian has ever managed – not even Sachin. And he did it in his very first Test at a position in which many greats have never managed a century in their entire career.Fittingly, Kohli was adjudged man of a match that is already being dubbed the greatest draw in the history of cricket. India, written off before the game, had shown they have what it takes to compete abroad – and a big reason for that is the emergence of Virat Kohli as a batsman for all seasons and conditions.In 2013, Kohli took giant strides towards fulfilling his massive potential. Away from the glare of flashbulbs, he systematically worked on ironing out his flaws. On the most public of stages – a cricket field, with millions watching and nowhere to hide -- he visibly grew manifold, both as a cricketer and as a person. At times, we saw him tempering his instincts and curbing his impetuosity. When he reached his century at Wanderers, it was noticeable that he didn’t launch into his usual burst of profanities; a new, wiser Kohli seems to be emerging.There is a bit of Javed Miandad’s street-fighter in Kohli, a bit of Tendulkar’s grit and a bit of MS Dhoni’s penchant for the perfect finish. Tipped as a future captain, Kohli showed he is on the right track by enthusiastically embracing responsibility. This was, without a doubt, Virat Kohli’s year. Expect many more to follow.Dark clouds had gathered over the once lofty Indian economy earlier this year. The rupee was falling inflation was skyrocketing, and nervous foreign investors were pulling out money from the stock market. It was in these trying circumstances that Ra ghuram Rajan, the chief economic adviser in the finance ministry, took over as the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.But the IMF-trained economist hit the ground running, rattling off a series of measures to steady the ship. Among the steps he has taken are a comprehensive set of guidelines to tackle the thorny issue of bad loans, freeing branch licensing for banks, setting up panels to rework the monetary policy framework, and priority sector loans for banks. He has also hinted at allowing foreign investors more freedom in hedging against currency risks. The measured steps ushered in hope for Asia’s third largest economy, helping lift the gloom and doom. The ease with which Rajan, 50, settled into the job also demolished the criticism that he lacked administra tive experience and was an outsider to the system at the central bank, used to civil servants as governors. In nearly four months that he has been in office at Mumbai’s Mint street, where the central bank is head quartered, Rajan has earned several sobriquets from “The Guv”, “Bond” to “Thailaivar” (The boss). Some have swooned over his good looks while others have been awe struck by his ‘beautiful mind. “He has done very well but he has to steer the monetary and banking ship at a time when waters though not stormy, remain choppy and winds could change.Neverthe less I think most people would sleep more soundly knowing Raghu is on the bridge,” Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman Planning Commission, told TOI.This wasn’t just the year of the aam aadmi, the aam aurat had plenty to say. A young law intern took on a powerful retired Supreme Court judge, refusing to back down in the face of skepticism. The clear-eyed arguments of a young Tehelka re porter raped in a lift allegedly by her boss were not shaken by in nuendo and conspiracy theories. In Mumbai, a young photo-jour nalist decided not to keep quiet about her gangrape even though the trauma of reliving the incident caused her to faint in court.Till the terrible rape of December 26 last year the ordinary Indian woman would put up with a lot before she protested. After all you have to pick your battles everyday and there were so many of them. But today, she will not tolerate the silly sexist joke, the passing grope, and definitely not rape. The boys-will-be-boys line has never sounded so feeble.“Women don’t think it is their kismet to deal with rubbish anymore and that applies to every kind of woman,” says Kamla Bhasin of Jagori. She points out that men have simply not awakened to this heightened sense of self worth in women. Thus the collective howl of outrage when Farooq Abdullah said that he is now afraid to employ a woman secretary or when indie rocker Palash Sen indulged in blather about women and beauty vs men and intelligence at IIT Bombay.The enough-is-enough line played out through the year, emphatically defining acceptable behaviour. A few years ago, the socalled avuncular arm around actress Shweta Menon would not have drawn any attention. But Menon’s outrage found echoes across the country earlier this year. Take the case of Vaishali Janarthana, a 21-year-old collegiate from Mumbai who, like several other wom en commuters, had internalized the perils of being caught in rush hour crush at stations and learnt to swallow the insults. No longer. She along with a few others — two heart-warmingly enough are men – is now painstakingly monitoring mobs that harass women on stations. “It feels wrong now to sit quiet and compliant. We are aiming to break the silence of women who believe that it is ‘normal to be teased. But the more we tolerate the more we will be harassed,” says Janarathana, a member of War against Railway Rowdies.In the meanwhile, men are having to re-learn the lessons passed down generations. It may be a long walk ahead.Whether it was the Supreme Court shocker on homosexuality or the ques tion of how establishments dealt with cases of sexual harassment, ad ditional solicitor general Indira Jaising spoke up every single time defence of reason and human rights. For a government spokesperson she is remarkably blunt in her criticism of the establishment and its sexist ways, and her sharpest words are often reserved for the judiciary. Jaising’ latest salvo was the release last Sunday of the law intern’s affidavit against Justice AK Ganguly alleging sexual misconduct. The controversial move she said, was to stem the tide of powerful support for the retired SC judge.Only boys rule the box-office? ‘Bokwas’ said Deepika Padukone, whose last four films grossed over Rs 600 crore, according to Forbes India. Numbers aside, it’s her performances that made her a figure to reckon with this year – the class geek who discovered her inner truant in Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, a feisty runaway steamrolling her main man from north India to south in Chennai Express and most recently, a studly Juliet to rumoured real-life beau Ranveer Singh’s Romeo in Goliyon Ka Raas Leela Ram Leela. “Jigar pe mat ja, trigger daba doongi,” her character warns in Ram Leela. Maar dala!This babu just can’t be bullied. And in spite of a negative fallout, which adversely affected both his career and personal life, Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka nixed what he claimed was a dodgy land deal between real estate major DLF, and a Robert Vadra company. As if on cue, a chargesheet was filed against him and he received death threats. Khemka, at present is languishing as the directorgeneral of archives and archaeology in Haryana. But even after being pushed and shoved through 44 departments since 1994, Khemka refuses to back off. The AAP has reportedly approached him to lead its campaign in Haryana.Random and arbitrary shuffling around of IAS officers is common practice in UP. But the Akhilesh Yadav government was obviously out of touch with the growing disgust of the aam aadmi for the political class when it decided to suspend the 28-yearold SDM of Gautam Budh Nagar, Durga Sakthi Nagpal, ostensibly for ordering the demolition of a wall of a mosque. It soon became evident that the sand mafia had plotted her overthrow. By September, the outcry over the action taken against the young civil servant became so vehement that UP had to reinstate her.10.Every political party in Maharashtra feared the mild-mannered Narendra Dabholkar: the saffron brigade because he exposed sundry godmen and the Congress because his strong push for the Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Ordinance that could, the party feared, upset the so-called Hindu voter. The hysteria against one of India’s most respected rationalists and athiest had grown virulent in the weeks leading up to his murder in Pune. Ironically, the Bill was enacted by the Maharashtra cabinet on August 21, the day after he was gunned down during his morning stroll. Dabholkar had campaigned tirelessly against tantriks who promised to rid gullible folks of ailments and misfortunes with fake cures and dubious rituals. His killers have yet to be identified.