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 (BJP) loses control of state governments in
Uttar Pradesh,
Punjab, and Uttaranchal (now known as
Uttarakhand) according to election results released this day. The
BJP is expected to retain a role in a coalition in
U.P. (the most populous state in India), 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 started by a local Muslim mob in
Godhra.
28 February –
2002 Gujarat violence: Violence against Muslim community in the city of
Ahmedabad,
Gujarat leaves over 500 dead. The violence came after the death the previous day of 58 who died in
Godhra, near
Vadodara (the exact circumstances remain unclear).
28 February –
Gulbarg Society massacre: During the
2002 Gujarat riots, a mob attacked the Gulbarag Society, a lower-middle-class neighbourhood 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.[2][3][4]
28 February – 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.
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
Ayodhyamosque, which was destroyed by Hindu extremists in 1992.
26 March – The government pushes through its controversial
Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) 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
4 April – On his first visit to
Gujarat since the violence there began, (See
2002 Gujarat violence) Prime Minister
Vajpayee makes an impassioned speech appealing to the
Hindu and
Muslim communities to end the violence, saying that the "shameful events" in
Gujarat are a "blot" on India.
16 April – Up to 10 million
public sector workers, including 32,000 employees of state-owned banks, hold a one-day strike against government
privatisation plans.
18 April – India signs a deal to buy a $146 million weapon-seeking radar system built by the U.S. company
Raytheon. It is the first significant U.S. arms sale to India for a decade.
29 April – Minister for Coal and Mines
Ram Vilas Paswan resigns on the issue of the Gujarat violence, which he says has "tarnished India's image" while the government's role appears to be that of a "silent spectator". He pulls his
Lok Janshakti Party out of the ruling
National Democratic Alliance coalition.
14 May – An attack by militants on an army base in
Kashmir, in which 34 people are killed, leads to sharply rising tensions with
Pakistan. On 15 May,
Vajpayee says in the Lok Sabha: "We will have to retaliate." Fears increase that the situation might escalate into a nuclear exchange.
21 May – Moderate
Kashmiri separatist leader
Abdul Ghani Lone is assassinated. On the same day Vajpayee begins a five-day visit to Kashmir. In a martial speech on 22 May, he says that "a new chapter of victory and triumph will be written in the history books soon".
23 May – Indian paratroops complete a two-week exercise with U.S. forces south of New Delhi.
31 May – Both the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the U.S. State Department issue unprecedented advice to their citizens living in India to leave the country.
June – Tensions between
India and Pakistan are reduced largely as a result of international pressure.
Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf assures visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Richard Armitage that the cessation of cross-border infiltration will be made "permanent" and "irreversible". On 20 June,
Indian Defense MinisterGeorge Fernandes says that infiltration has "nearly ended". Analysts note, however, that some 3,000 indigenous and Pakistani militants are already inside Indian-controlled Kashmir, and violent incidents continue on a daily basis. On 9 June police in Srinagar arrest
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, leader of the hardline Islamist
Jamaat-i-Islami party and a prominent leader of the
All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
22 June –
Ashok Singhal, leader of the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), announces that the VHP is no longer bound by its earlier promise to the government to await a court ruling before embarking on the construction of a temple to the
godRama on the site of the destroyed
Babrimosque at
Ayodhya.
15 July – An electoral college composed of the members of both houses of the federal parliament and of all state assemblies elects
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a
Muslim and prominent missile scientist,
president of India. He was supported by the ruling NDA coalition as well as the opposition Congress and most other parties.
27 July – Vice President
Krishan Kant dies of a heart attack.
25 August – Notorious bandit
Veerappan abducts a former minister of
Karnataka, Hannur Nagappa, threatening to behead him unless the state governments of
Karnataka and neighbouring
Tamil Nadu release imprisoned Tamil separatists.
28 August – Chief magistrate Rameshwar Kotha of the
Bhopal High Court rejects the federal Central Bureau of Investigation's attempt to reduce charges against the former chairman of the U.S.
Union Carbide company, Warren Anderson, for responsibility for the 1984 chemical plant disaster at
Bhopal. Kotha asks the government to bring extradition proceedings without delay, but it is thought that the government is reluctant to do so for fear of alienating the U.S. business community.
9 September – At least 119 people are killed in a train crash in the northeastern state of
Bihar when part of the
Rajdhani Express from
Kolkata to
New Delhi derails on a bridge over the Dhava river near
Aurangabad.
24 – 25 September – Two heavily armed gunmen kill at least 32 people in an attack on a
Hindu temple in
Gandhinagar, the capital of
Gujarat, before army commandos recapture the temple and kill the terrorists.
16 October –
Defense MinisterGeorge Fernandes announces that a significant number of the million troops deployed since December 2001 on the border with Pakistan will be withdrawn. However, there will be no reduction in strength along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
3 November - Two alleged militants died in a fake encounter in Ansal Plaza,
Delhi.[5][6]
15 November – A court in New Delhi finds that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the UK based businessmen and brothers
Shrichand,
Gopichand, and
Prakash Hinduja for cheating, conspiracy, and abetting corruption in the 1986 arms procurement scandal between India and the Swedish arms manufacturer
Bofors.
8 December – Police confirm they have found the body of H. Nagappa, the former
Karnataka minister kidnapped by
Veerappan in August.
Veerappan issues a taped statement saying that Nagappa has been accidentally killed in a shootout with the police.
12 December – The
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is returned to power with a landslide victory in state assembly elections in
Gujarat.
16 December – A special court in
New Delhi convicts three
Kashmiri Muslims of planning the attack on the federal parliament in December 2001. The three men are sentenced to death on 18 December.
20 December – Guerrillas of the
Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) kill 18 people in an attack on a police van in the Sanda forests of the eastern state of
Jharkhand. It is said to be a revenge attack for the death two days earlier of the MCC leader Ishwari Mahato.