The year 2010 is finally over. It had begun innocuously enough, but soon started showing its true colours. One headline here, one headline there and we thought it was just a case of bad planning for the Commonwealth Games; things will fall in place at the last minute. Soon we realised what was building up was a big-ticket scam, one of the biggest we have ever seen. The most insulting part was the brazenness of the dramatis personae. And by the time the Games were over, there were cropping up too many claimants for the pole position on the scam chart. Then came the Radia tapes, the full ramifications of which are yet to be untangled. Is there any hope for the nation?

On the other hand, though they did not make lead headlines, there were people doing their honest job silently, keeping the system from breaking down altogether. Whistleblowers and RTI activists, bureaucrats and the common man, going where angels fear to tread, not to forget some excellent institutions that make Indian democracy what it is.  Do they constitute a hope for the new year? Will they have an upper hand this time?