Don't shield communal killers

Yet, a police officer told the reporters filing the story, "Nobody has been killed in Trilokpuri." Shortly thereafter, a Sikh youth, his stomach slashed, collapsed in their arms.

The contrast between reality and the official version of the massacre that followed Indira Gandhi's killing was stark. As violence raged through bustees and middle class colonies, the police largely watched. In many cases, they participated in the bloodshed and looting.

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This writer had just flown into Delhi from Bombay that morning and witnessed the events. The tension was palpable. Malicious rumours flew thick and fast about how "thousands of Sikhs" had celebrated the assassination. "They must be taught a lesson," it was whispered.

By the evening, systematic killing and arson began -- at the behest of Congress leaders, who mobilised mobs crying for "revenge." Columns of smoke rose all over Delhi. Vehicles were stopped to check the passengers' identity.

Soon, Sikh truckers were "necklaced." Lorry-tyres containing kerosene were hung around their necks. They were burnt alive.

Officially, 2,733 people were killed in the worst communal violence in Independent India, barring Gujarat.

Twenty one years and nine enquiry commissions later, the perpetrators of the carnage haven't been brought to book. Not one politician or policeman stands convicted. Only 13 people of the thousands who killed, raped and burned, have been held guilty.

The hopes that the Nanavati Commission would spur adequate corrective action stand belied. The government's Action Taken Report (ATR) is another black-mark in this prolonged cover-up of the state's collusion with premeditated killings.

The Nanavati report is shoddy. It recognises that the violence was "systematic," "organised," and conducted under "instructions" -- but fails to fix culpability, especially at the apex level. The judge was working within the confines of the evidence before him. Evidence of communal violence can often be manipulated. Testimonies can be changed. Key witnesses can be bribed or bludgeoned to shield powerful individuals.

The role of Congress politicians in plotting and organising the carnage has been well-documented. They took their cue from Rajiv Gandhi who infamously said: "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes."

The coterie around Gandhi, including Messrs Jagdish Tytler, HKL Bhagat, Sajjan Kumar, Arun Nehru, and Kamal Nath instigated or condoned the killing.

Some of these connections were carefully recorded by citizens' groups like Nagarik Ekta Manch, which interviewed thousands of eyewitnesses and produced a booklet entitled "Who Are the Guilty?" Nine official commissions couldn't achieve even this -- despite their authority and resources.

Justice Nanavati found the Delhi authorities collectively guilty, but individually innocent -- a contradiction! He also held that top officials, including Lt. Governor P.G. Gavai and Police Commissioner S.C. Tandon, shouldn't be prosecuted because they have retired.

This makes no sense. Mr Tandon has retired, but he is liable for actions committed while holding office. Mr Gavai took his orders from the Union home ministry. He seems to have been made a scapegoat.

Mr Gavai ordered Mr Tandon to call in the army in the morning of November 1. However, the army effectively arrived only on November 3, by which time hundreds had been killed. Mr Gavai says Home Minister Narasimha Rao "hid like a rat" for three days.

There was no political will to stop the violence, and later, to punish its perpetrators. The Congress pretends that only "local-level" leaders organised the violence. This won't do.

Even more disgracefully, the Centre didn't commit itself to action even where the Nanavati report warrants it. It's only under the Left's pressure that Dr Manmohan Singh asked Mssrs Tytler and Sajjan Kumar to resign.

There was "credible evidence" against both. The government originally diluted that observation as amounting to "probabilistic" evidence. But all criminal cases are registered on probabilistic evidence! Only conviction needs conclusive proof.

The ATR rules out prosecuting Mr Bhagat because of his poor health and Mr Kamal Nath because of a witness's changed affidavit. Poor health can justify a lighter sentence, not the absence of prosecution. Similarly, it's for a trial court to evaluate the evidence against Mr Nath. But the ATR drops their prosecution altogether.

This travesty of justice will horrify the public and signal that impunity for grave crimes is the rule in India: the powerful cannot be brought to book; the rich rarely go to jail. The law is only applied against the powerless.

The UPA must not vacillate over fulfilling its "solemn promise" to pursue all individuals named by Mr Nanavati and previous inquiries. It must charge them and try them in special courts.

A higher principle is involved. If India is to live up to the great democratic aspirations of its people, it must affirm the rule of law -- systematically, painstakingly, and impartially. This is a precondition for democracy.

The anti-Sikh pogrom presents a special challenge -- and an opportunity to do justice to the victims of a gruesome massacre.

Taking prompt and serious action on the Nanavati report will be a prelude to the Ultimate Test the nation faces: namely, denying impunity to the perpetrators of barbarity in Gujarat. Gujarat was greater in scale and brutality than Delhi, especially in its bestial quality of sexual violence. It was also more directly state-instigated.

India's claim to high global stature doesn't lie in the Security Council or nuclear weapons, not even in growing economic power. It lies in democracy and pluralism.

That claim will become a farce if heinous mass-level crimes go unpunished. That would be a tragedy not just for Delhi's Sikhs or Gujarat's Muslims, but for all Indians.

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.