The Nanavati commission report was presented in parliament today. The outcome to say the very least, is very disappointing (see earlier post on it). The more powerful Congress leaders like Sajjan Kumar and Jagdish Tytler will go scot free, not only that, many lower ranked police and bureaucrats will go free as well. These people are responsible for nearly 3000 deaths in the anti-Sikh riots in 1984.

Rediff has a sampling of the recommendations of the commission, which makes for depressing reading. Sikh groups in India are understandably very disappointed. HS Phulka, the lawyer who has been fighting for justice for almost two decades, reflects what I fear is the consequence of this injustice (rediff):

“….After over 20 years of fight, we realised that this country is not governed by the rule of law.”

This is very disheartening. It sets a negative precedence for stopping political violence in the future. It undermines the recent directions given by the Supreme Court to the Gujarat police to apprehend the accused in the 2002 riots.

Update: The BBC has a story today on the protests that have met the Nanavati report. Unfortunately the victims voices are drowned under the shrill tones of BJP harridans like Sushma Swaraj, who are calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister. Kind of sickening, considering that the worst violence in India’s recent history, where the state was deeply complicit happened under the BJP’s watch, when folks like Swaraj were in power.

Also see Dilip D’Souza and Amardeep Singh on this travesty.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 8th, 2005 at 11:37 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.