Action not taken

The G.T. Nanavati Commission Report represents yet another attempt this country is making at ensuring justice with regard to the 1984 riots 8212; a justice that has proved tragically elusive all these years, even though 2,733 people were killed in Delhi alone during that dark interlude. The fact that not one of those who masterminded or spearheaded this carnage has had to face punishment will remain an affront to the nation; an unfinished business that mocks its democratic pretensions.

It is in that light that the Commission8217;s observations need to be viewed. The Report has its infirmities 8212; inevitable in an exercise undertaken years after the events 8212; but its findings nevertheless require to be accorded the high seriousness that a project of this kind entails. In its response the UPA government, as one headed by the Congress Party, should have gone the extra mile to project an urgent sense of commitment to achieving justice. Instead, it chose to reach out for that all-too-familiar can of whitewash. Its Action Taken Report could just as well be read as an Action Not Taken Report. It rushed to agree with the generalities in the Report 8212; as, for instance, the need to ensure better leadership and independence in the police 8212; but balked at any prospect of taking action against its own men alleged to be involved in the riots, by clutching at technicalities. The Report has, for instance, found that Jagdish Tytler was 8220;very probably8221; involved in the riots. A serious charge like this, involving a Union minister, cannot be brushed aside with the comment that 8220;a person cannot be prosecuted simply on the basis of probability8221;. It demands an effective response, it calls for an inquiry 8212; possibly a CBI inquiry 8212; and it requires that Tytler step down until his name is cleared.

For the Congress government, this is an important moment. It has been given a chance to atone in some measure for the anti-Sikh riots and emerge as a force committed to the secular principle. Its credibility is on test. Will it seek to brazenly protect its own or will it choose to serve the ends of justice?