Every year contains in it a cacophony of news and a clutter of headlines. To give clarity and perspective to the past 12 months, we open 2002 with our first-ever Newsmaker of the Year, which we hope to make an annual feature. The purpose of the exercise is to identify the theme that dominated news over a year and then single out the individual who personified that theme-the man or woman who through their actions had the most profound impact on us. The India Today Newsmaker of the Year is not merely an individual who uses up column inches in print or minutes on television, but whose actions have changed the course of our lives.

Our choice of Newsmaker will not be a subjective or moral decision based on who did the most good. It's simply the person who made the most news in the year. Had India Today been around in 1939, the Newsmaker of the Year would undoubtedly have been Adolf Hitler. We wouldn't have liked him, but he would have been difficult to ignore. A similar exercise in 1971 would have concluded that the year belonged to Indira Gandhi for her triumphant conduct of the war against Pakistan. She would have been our choice in 1975 too for less glorious reasons-declaring Emergency and putting democracy in a limbo.

The Newsmaker of the Year is not an "honour". It is both observation and judgement, a way of recording recent history. Our senior editors took all these factors on board when sitting down to pick our first Newsmaker of the Year: they considered several individuals, who receive a mention in this issue. The final choice was unanimous.

Like Hitler, he is singularly evil. But his role in determining how 2001 eventually turned out would make the choice of Osama bin Laden difficult to disagree with. In fact, the Koran warns of a "devious enemy" who will use the name of God to lead the faithful down the wrong road. Our Newsmaker of the Year is that very man come to life. Despite him, let me wish you a Happy New Year.

(Aroon Purie)