Gaslighting’ was elected the word of the year by the good people who give us the dictionary. Psychological manipulation that distorts the perception of reality, as the word implies, has been everywhere. Yet, 2022 was the year when politics and reality finally had a proper encounter. As such, the favoured word of the global commentariat and analysts is ‘polycrisis’ — a new word to capture all the connected crises pushing the global order into a reset. For all the doom and gloom, 2022 was a half-decent year for democracy – globally and in India. Straight up, I don’t mean to…