Who are the guilty.

Find that the Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission Report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots is not a fair document. The judge traces events more or less accurately, yet he does not come to the obvious conclusion. It is as if he is willing to strike but is afraid to wound. He rejects the argument that what happened was “merely a spontaneous reaction of the angry public” after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh guards. He goes as far as to say: “The systematic manner” in which the Sikhs were killed indicated that “the attacks on them were organised”. But he holds back when, as a judge, he should have gone further to probe who organised these systematic attacks.

Again, Nanavati says there is evidence to show that on October 31, 1984, the day Mrs Gandhi was killed, “either meetings were held or the persons who could organise attacks were contacted and were given instructions to kill Sikhs and loot their houses and shops.” Who issued these instructions because the order to kill is a serious criminal offence? Nanavati also says that attacks were made “without much fear of the police, almost suggesting that they were assured that they would not be harmed while committing those acts and even thereafter.” These were categorical assurances. No ordinary person could give them. They must have come from a person or persons of high political standing or who had governmental clout.