New Delhi: The year 2025 is coming to an end and most people are busy considering New Year’s resolutions. Every new year promises change and every December promises a reset.This year, India moved forward rapidly, yet some headlines felt like deja vu.In some cases, names, dates and places changed, but the story didn’t change – one major thing. BJPa flowing CongressPoisonous Delhi air, terror linked to Pakistan. Many of the themes remained the same, think: gender discrimination by politicians, language wars and the name changing frenzy.Here are ten headlines from 2025 that stayed exactly the same.
1. BJP’s victory chariot is moving ahead
In 2025, BJP once again proved that India’s default setting is “saffron”. The party registered emphatic victories in both Delhi and Bihar – two very different, politically important states.In February, BJP ended the drought in Delhi and returned to power after 27 years. It won 48 out of 70 assembly seats with about 46% vote share. The current AAP government slipped to 22 seats and got around 44% of the seats. In Bihar, where the NDA was fighting anti-incumbency, the alliance won 202 out of 243 seats in the assembly. BJP emerged as the largest party with 89 seats. The party got about 21 percent vote share.In Maharashtra, the BJP-led Mahayuti won the largest majority, winning 207 municipal council and nagar panchayat seats out of 288. On most of them, BJP won 117 seats, Shiv Sena won 53 seats and NCP won 37 seats. Congress won 28 seats.Since results were counted on different days for different elections, the headline still read – BJP starts as favourite, BJP comes first.
2. Congress failed to revive itself
If BJP’s script remained familiar, so did Congress’s. The party’s national brand also performed poorly, with local anger against those in power visible.This year, after even failing to open its account in the Delhi elections, the party held an AICC meeting in Ahmedabad in April. The same old issues were raised: a call to rebuild the organization from the booth level, sharpening the party’s ideological pitch beyond anti-BJP rhetoric and regaining lost ground in the Hindi heartland.But again in Bihar, Congress managed to win only 6 seats with 8.7% vote share.This year, the story of Congress was, once again, about its capacity and plans rather than its results.Election after election, the same words kept coming up in the analysis throughout the year: “fragmented”, “factional-ridden”, “no grassroots connection”.
3. Is this your last game, Mr. Rohit-Virat-Dhoni?
Cricket fans remain addicted to their favorite off-field game in 2025 – speculating as to when India’s modern greats will step away from the field.Last year, after announcing their retirement from T20 format, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli played in a reduced schedule. However, after every match, series, or dip in form or respite, the question “Is this their last?” Discussion.But RoKo ended the year as the No. 1 and 2 batsmen in the ICC ODI rankings. Both of them also made a strong comeback in the domestic Vijay Hazare Trophy after years.At the domestic level, MS Dhoni, who has retired from international cricket long ago but is still the totem of Chennai Super Kings, remains in the news for retirement in every IPL match. Speaking of reading too much into it, people went crazy over his T-shirt ahead of the IPL season this year, which had “One Last Time” written on it in Morse code.He obviously went on to play in 2025 and also took over as the captain of CSK in the middle of the season after captain Ruturaj Gaikwad was injured.
4. Delhi Bani Gas Chamber
From Diwali till winter, it was the same story again in Delhi. By December, the city’s AQI remained in the “severe” to “hazardous” range for several consecutive days. GRAP sanctions were imposed repeatedly through Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4. An analysis showed that AQI levels remained above 500 through mid-December, with peaks over 600 and no meaningful decline into safe categories, underscoring that this was not a one-day spike but a chronic toxic wall.Flights were delayed, schools went online, restrictions on construction returned, and familiar scenes of masked children, the missing India Gate and gray skyline flooded the feed.Experts once again cited the same cocktail: winter inversion, low wind, vehicular and industrial emissions, and stubble burning. Policy responses remained reactive and short-term.Plus, the headlines seemed copy-pasted from almost any winter of the last decade: “Delhi chokes”, “Delhi turns into gas chamber”, “Delhi’s air turns red”.
5. Slipping Rupee
When Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was asked about the fall of the rupee in 2022, she had said, ‘I will not see it as a fall of the rupee, I will see it as a strengthening of the dollar.’In 2025, the rupee quietly set new records of weakness against the US dollar. After relative stability, it fell to an all-time low of Rs 91 in December. The rupee has fallen 5-6% so far this year, making it Asia’s worst performing currency this year.Addressing the concerns, the Finance Minister had said earlier this month: “The rupee will find its level.Meanwhile, analysts have pointed to a widening trade deficit, foreign portfolio outflows and Donald Trump’s 50% tariffs on Indian goods for the decline.
6. Pakistan and its love for terrorism
2025 did not break the pattern of terrorism linked to Pakistan. On April 22, a terrorist attack near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir killed 26 civilians, mostly Hindu tourists. The investigation revealed that the attack was masterminded by Lashkar-e-Taiba’s branch, The Resistance Front.After this there was a strong reaction from India Operation Sindoor In which the missiles destroyed terrorist infrastructure linked to Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir region.Islamabad once again refused to accept its stand even as its army chiefs were seen attending the funeral of terrorists.The headline “India-Pakistan relations once again strained due to terrorism” was sadly accurate.
7. Politicians’ misogyny is on loop
If there’s one style of political controversy that never goes out of style, it’s misogynistic comments from our leaders. This year has given us many examples beyond parties and states. In early January, BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri sparked outrage for a sexist comment about Priyanka Gandhi, leading Congress and AAP leaders to call it evidence of a “deeply anti-women” mindset.Bidhuri had said, “Lalu had said in Bihar that he would make roads like Hema Malini’s cheeks, but he lied, he could not do it. I assure you that just as we made roads in Okhla and Sangam Vihar, we will make all the roads in Kalkaji like Priyanka Gandhi’s cheeks.”In Kerala, a CPI(M) leader won a panchayat seat, took out a victory rally and said that “women are only for sleeping with husbands”.Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar created controversy by pulling the niqab of a woman wearing hijab at an event. What happened next was even more disturbing. BJP leader Giriraj Singh defended the CM’s action, saying Kumar had behaved like a “guardian” and the woman could take the job or “go to hell”. Bihar Governor Arif Mohammad Khan also made a similar point and said that Nitish “considers female students as his daughters”.This year, Bihar presented other such moments too. Nitish got into trouble by saying, “Girls have become very confident. They speak so well and dress so well. Have we seen them dressed so well before?”RJD patron Lalu Prasad Yadav also made derogatory remarks about Nitish, saying he was attending the women’s rally to “taunt women”. When asked about Nitish’s Mahila Samvad Yatra, he said, “Nayan is going to learn.”West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also faced criticism after defending her government after a gang rape case by blaming the victim. “Why was she out at midnight?” Mamta asked.The reaction cycle was the same every time: viral clip > outrage > absurd defense > forgotten. The headline “Leader’s gender remarks create a storm” could be reused almost every month.
8. Language war: Hindi vs the rest again
The linguistic politics of India remained flammable. In 2025, much of the summer focused on school language policy and “Hindi imposition” in non-Hindi states. In Maharashtra, the BJP-led government’s move to make Hindi compulsory from Classes 1 to 5 drew sharp reactions.As MK Stalin took charge in Tamil Nadu, a parallel debate broke out in the southern states on the three language formula of the NEP and the balance between English, regional languages and Hindi. The core story of the “language war” – centrally driven Hindi versus regional pride and accessibility concerns – remained unchanged.
9. Name change – a never-ending project
what’s in a name? Ahem, everything!Renaming towns, villages and roads remains a favorite symbolic device. In 2025, Uttarakhand made headlines by renaming 11 places in four districts, replacing names like Aurangzebpur and Mohammadpur Jat with names like Shivaji Nagar, Mohanpur Jat, Shri Krishnapur, Ambedkar Nagar and Jyotiba Phule Nagar.This culminated during the winter session of Parliament when the Center came up with the Developed India-Employment and Livelihood Mission (Rural) aka VB-G RAMG Bill, which replaced the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA).
10. ‘When will you get married?’ ft salman khan and rahul gandhi
Even as India debated wars, rupees and air quality, one faint but obvious thing remained a constant in pop-political culture: the obsession with the marital status of India’s eternal bachelors. Salman Khan, who is about to celebrate his 60th birthday, and Rahul Gandhi, who is still unmarried and is still at the center of the Congress story, pose the perennial “when will you get married?” remain the main goals of. Question.In fact, during the Bihar Assembly elections, Rahul occasionally used the topic in press conferences to lighten the mood. While sharing the stage with Tejashwi Yadav, he revealed that Lalu Prasad Yadav had advised him to get married soon.However, Tejashwi used the same platform to publicly draw attention to another eligible bachelor – his rival Chirag Paswan – and urged him to tie the knot.
