1984 - A Hate Story

1984 - is not only Orwellian fiction, but is also a bloodstained reality. The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls it a blot on India's history. The fabric of India's post-independence history today has been reduced to a dirty tattered rag. Nellie, Delhi, Bhagalpur, Bombay, Gujarat and so many more that escape our ephemeral memories.

The Nanavati Commission investigating the 1984 massacre of Sikh's in the nation's capital has tabled its findings. The politicians bound by tradition will yet again make a mockery of parliamentary democracy in the name of protest. And going by the past track record the guilty politicians will walk away scot free.

Referring to the slaughter of 3,000 Sikhs in the aftermath of his predecessor and mother Indira Gandhi's assassination by her bodyguards, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi infamously said, "Jab bargad ka per girta hai, to dharti zara si hilti hai" (when a big tree falls, the ground is bound to shake a little). This and so many more trembles still reverberate in our nation's conscience (if we have one).

I find an echo of my thoughts (and perhaps of many other Indians) in Vir Sanghvi's article 'A massacre is a massacre' in yesterday's Hindustan Times.