Five personalities which bit the dust in 2018

The year 2018 has almost come to an end. It has been a tumultuous year for many. It’s time to take a look back at five of the names which bit the dust in 2018.

The first name in the list is of ‘veteran’ journalist Vinod Dua. This disgraced journalist of the left-liberal cabal has been accused of sexual assault by a freelance journalist cum filmmaker, Nishtha Jain, and journalist cum documentary filmmaker, Sunita Thakur. Both of them accused him of inappropriate behavior.

Vinod Dua described allegations against him as “keechad” in his show on the portal ‘The Wire’.

For more details: MeToo: Vinod Dua gets exposed as a sexual fiend

For more details: Another woman alleges Vinod Dua of ‘predatory behaviour’

In the last month of the year, Vinod Dua has come back again with his new show on a different news platform only to get humiliated. In his show, Vinod Dua shared a nefariously edited video of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s interview with Akhilesh Bhargava giving the impression that Gadkari spoke against the Modi government. The Office of Nitin Gadkari without any delay exposed the lies of Vinod Dua as it posted the original interview on Facebook.

For more details: Post humiliation by Nitin Gadkari, HW News deletes the Vinod Dua video

For more details: Nitin Gadkari exposes the fake news by Vinod Dua

This indeed has been not a good year for Vinod Dua, as he seems to have lost both respect and credibility as a journalist.

The next name in the list of losers is of journalist turned politician MJ Akbar. He was the Minister of State for External Affairs until his name cropped in the Me Too campaign. Led by journalists Priya Ramani and Pallavi Gogoi, over 20 female colleagues accused him of sexually harassing them. Even though M J Akbar denied all accusations as ‘wild and baseless’, he had to step down after a public outrage was launched against him. The Editors’ Guild of India also suspended his membership until the completion of the trial process.

For more details: While M J Akbar gets punished, no action against Vinod Dua

Former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah is arguably one of the biggest political losers of the year. In order to prevent the BJP from coming to power in Karnataka, Congress and JD(S) formed a post-poll alliance despite having shared an acrimonious relationship in the past. However, after wresting power in the state, the Congress completely sidelined former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah. The Congress party came down to 78 in 2018 from 122 in 2013. But ironically the credit for winning most of the seats which Congress won in Karnataka goes to Siddaramaiah. The Kurubas have been providing overwhelming support to the Congress Party because Siddaramaiah belongs to the same community. A majority of the Congress MLAs elected in Karnataka were supported heavily by the community. But still the Congress party sidelined him, and Siddaramaiah ultimately seems to have accepted all the diktats of the party. However, time and again, he has lambasted the incumbent Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy. From Karnataka, it is non-other than Siddaramaiah who finds a slot in the list of losers.

For more details: Is Kumaraswamy playing vendetta politics against Siddaramaiah?

For more details: Discontent in Congress-JD(S): Siddaramaiah objects to a new budget passed by Kumaraswamy

For more details: Yeddyurappa sympathises with Siddaramaiah

Former Tripura CM Manik Sarkar is among the few political personalities rooted out of power in 2018. The long reign of the Communist leader came to an end after the BJP demolished one of the last and the strongest communist bastions left in the country. Hence, former Tripura CM is a strong contender to top the losers’ list.

Last but not the least, former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh also features in the list of losers as far as the nation’s politics is concerned. The defeat of Raman Singh was unexpected and surprising in a state where he was widely believed to return. Raman Singh governed the state for 15 years and has been the longest-serving BJP CM in the country. In his 15 years of rule, Raman Singh managed to earn an image of credible, visionary, honest, and non-corrupt CM which even his opponents agree to. The welfare schemes implemented by Raman Singh made him very popular among poor tribal population of the state. Before he took over, the majority population of Chhattisgarh was so poor that it couldn’t even afford a proper meal. He started public distribution scheme (PDS) under which poor families were provided 1 kg of rice for 1 rupee and distributed cows to Adivasi families. The industrial growth in the state has put enough money in the government coffers for the expansion of public services. Nagarnar Steel Plant in Bastar will go in production in next few months. To ensure industrial development, he encouraged corporate houses to set up plants in the state. However, despite doing everything possible for the development of Chhattisgarh, Raman Singh suffered an unexpected defeat in the recently concluded state assembly elections. While Shivraj Singh Chauhan has possibly become even more popular after the defeat, Raman Singh seemed to have gone into a self-imposed political exile.

For more details: Raman Singh’s defeat is a loss for Chhattisgarh