1984 riots: Some justice at last

In a scathing verdict, the Delhi High Court convicted a senior politician for inciting a mob to murder people in 1984’s anti-Sikh riots in Delhi. Sajjan Kumar, an influential Congress Member of Parliament and Jat leader when Mrs Indira Gandhi was assassinated, is the first big fish to face the consequences for his role in one of the India’s worst mass murder episodes. Justice may have been delayed for many of the 7,000-plus Sikhs butchered around India as the law had completely collapsed in the nation’s capital, but it hasn’t been denied. 

Referring to Partition, the 1993 Mumbai bombings, the 2002 Gujarat riots and the 2013 Muzzafarnagar communal violence, the judges spelt out with clarity what is wrong with our country.

The political patronage that rampaging mobs get is what blights the tense lives of minorities. 

If the verdict wakes us up about India being a mosaic of multiple religions, languages and cultures whose social fibre is easily weakened by targeting of communities, it would achieve far more than just handing out punishment for a crime. 

There may be no strict provisions to penalise those who instigate mobs, but mob rule must be halted with an iron hand. 

There can be no loss of authority at times when the system is tested by Indians turning against Indians. 

It’s the recurrence of systemic breakdowns engineered by politicians egging mobs on to settle scores through violence that represent the greatest threat to society. 

That’s what the judgment points to without mincing words, while dealing with the totality of how such emotional infernos destroy the very idea of India.