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See also: 1995 in India, other events of 1996, 1997 in India and the Timeline of Indian history.

Events

January to June

• January — A major corruption scandal erupts involving allegations that many senior politicians and civil servants have received bribes from prominent businessman Surendra Jain.
• January — Tensions with Pakistan rise sharply and there is an exchange of mortar and machine-gun fire across the Line of Control in Kashmir.
• 29 January — S. R. Bommai resigns as president of the Janata Dal party and is replaced by Laloo Prasad Yadav.
• 27 April, 2 May and 7 May — In general elections the ruling Congress Party is defeated and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) becomes the largest single party in parliament. Phoolan Devi, former bandit queen is elected to Parliament from the Samajwadi Party.
• 17 May to 28 May - Atal Bihari Vajpayee, leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party, is elected the new prime minister of India, replacing P. V. Narasimha Rao of the Indian National Congress. However, the party does not receive an overall majority and Vajpayee resigns thirteen days later rather than face a no confidence vote, and is replaced by the United Front, led Deve Gowda.
• 1 June — H.D. Deve Gowda is sworn in at the head of the United Front, a coalition of 13 parties which Congress supports but does not join. Gowda's new cabinet brings in powerful regional figures, mixing low-caste and minority Muslim leaders with veterans of the socialist movement.
• 28 June — Communists join the government for the first time since independence.

July to December

• 11 July — A Delhi court summons Congress president P.V. Narasimha Rao to testify as the co-accused in a cheating case.
• 28 August — At least 194 pilgrims are reported to have frozen to death in northern Kashmir after being stranded by violent rain and snow storms.
• 19 September — The government of Gujarat under Chief Minister Suresh Chandra Mehta is sacked on recommendation of Prime Minister Gowda, and federal rule is imposed over the state. The move comes a day after the BJP government in Gujarat won a controversial vote of confidence in the state legislature. Mehta won the vote after the acting assembly speaker (a BJP member) suspended all opposition legislators. Fighting broke out on the floor of the assembly after marshals tried to force the suspended legislators to leave. Witnesses said lawmakers hurled pin cushions and microphones at each other. Several lawmakers and journalists were reportedly injured in the scuffles.
• 22 September — Rao resigns as president of the Congress Party.
• 23 September - Sitaram Kesri is elected Congress president.
• 10 October — Rao is arrested on fresh charges of forgery.
• 11 October — An Uttar Pradesh state election returns a hung assembly; the local power struggle sharpens conflicts between Congress and coalition parties at national level.
• 7 November - A devastating Category 4 Cyclone strikes Andhra Pradesh, India. The storm surge sweeps fishing villages out to sea, over 2,000 people die. 95% of the crops are completely destroyed.
• 12 November — A Saudi Arabian Boeing 747 jumbo jet and a Kazakhstan Ilyushin cargo plane collide near New Delhi, killing 349 people in the world's deadliest mid-air collision.
• 28 November — Chinese President Jiang Zemin begins the first visit by a Chinese head of state to India.
• 19 December — Rao resigns as Congress parliamentary leader, his last official party position.
• 30 December - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.

Deaths

• 18 January - N. T. Rama Rao, actor, director, producer, and politician (b.1923).
• 3 July - Raaj Kumar, actor (b.1926).
• 29 July - Aruna Asaf Ali, independence fighter (b.1909).

Full date unknown

• P. K. Venugopalan Nambiar, agricultural scientist (b.1924).