What a year this was—scams galore. Somewhere in this dismal “scamscape” a sector within the Indian democratic system showed great promise—the judiciary. The way in which it handled matters with clarity, transparency and fairness was heartening for me as I have been a participant of the Indian legal fraternity. My vote for that sector which shows promise goes for the social justice system. A democratic system cannot stress enough on making the legal framework stronger and I believe that India will continue to shine in this regard. On a social angle, I saw the government working tirelessly towards the abolition of child malnutrition and that was an encouraging sign. However, the best moment of the year for me happened far away from Indian shores and was Barack Obama's re-election as the President of the USA for his second term. On the flipside, the political class of the country managed to disappoint in the past year. Not just the voters, but the country watching them. It would, however, be erroneous to believe that the political class is corrupted. Such a sweeping statement not only demoralises people, it also serves no purpose. There are participants such as Arun Jaitley who show promise. As long as we allow our democratic system to function I believe we could get a lot done. Alas, stalling Parliament for an entire monsoon session does not allow a lot to get done. Perhaps in 2013, we will see a change. On a personal front, I am looking forward to completing Voices of Dissent in the following year. The book will highlight dissenting judgments of the Supreme Court which have subsequently been accepted as “correct” by the court, which is conducive to progressive jurisprudence.