Heinous hate crimes, major assembly elections and Russia-Ukraine war replaced Covid in 2022. Instead of pictures of people wearing masks and of dead bodies lined up at crematoriums, India in 2022 saw victory flags and crowded roads from the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra. ThePrint’s National Photo Editor Praveen Jain, and photojournalists Manisha Mondal and Suraj Singh Bisht covered all the major events in the country.
A look at 2022 in pictures.
After BJP’s victory in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, and Manipur assembly elections, party leaders met at Delhi’s Ambedkar Hall, where BJP chief J.P. Nadda was felicitated. At this moment, Nadda wanted the media to leave the venue so that the event can start. As Praveen Jain waited to capture Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his lens, the security asked him to leave the hall.
During the UP election campaign, women were seen either standing in corners or looking down from the terrace of their homes. The women seen in this picture were trying to get a glimpse of BJP’s Agra candidate Baby Rani Maurya, who was addressing the male supporters of the party.
Following Russia’s invasion, many Indian students were stranded in Ukraine. Most of these students had gone there for their MBBS degrees. The Indian government launched ‘Operation Ganga’ to bring them back. While there was no specific time for the arrival of the flights, photographers were given a tentative schedule. Based on that, Suraj Singh Bisht reached the Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, but the flights were delayed. As a result, he ended up spending the entire night at the airbase.
Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor by profession, was allegedly killed by two Muslim men in Udaipur, Rajasthan. The men had sought to punish Kanhaiya for defending a controversial statement made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma.
Municipal Corporation of Delhi cleared all the illegal encroachment in Jahangirpuri area. Delhi police forcibly pulled people out of their houses. Majority of the people who were forced to leave their homes belonged to the Muslim community.
Narendra Modi got all the credit for BJP’s clean sweep in Gujarat assembly elections. Even Modi in his speech at the party headquarters said, “I had urged the people of Gujarat to break the record of ‘Narendra’ for ‘Bhupendra’ and the people of Gujarat have done that and created history.
Trams in Kolkata are dying, but these caterpillar joy rides still have a fanbase. Women find them safe, kids have their adventure and the elderly see them as comfortable rides. Kolkata gets its much-praised vibe from trams. This photo defines the chaos and beauty of the city that loves the slowness life has to offer.
Getting the frame right and the subject in focus when you are swarmed by crowds can sometimes become challenging—this picture is one such example. Photojournalists were not allowed to shoot near the Congress leader due to security concerns. ThePrint’s Suraj Singh Bisht tracked the yatra from early morning and walked around 5 km. Looking for the best location and angle, he went to a footbridge to get the shot. Suraj had to run in the middle of the crowd to capture the yatra from the front.