Some kind of History

Touching piece on the convictions for the crimes committed against Sikhs in 1984: If you check around, you'll find your own crop of similar explanations. The Bhiwandi killings of 1970 and 1984, the Delhi killings of 1984, the Mumbai killings of 1992-93, the Gujarat killings of 2002: pick any one, plenty of your fellow countrymen rationalize it, using words like "retaliation", "justified", "lesson", "water under the bridge" and more. Why, on the day I read about the conviction of Gurpal's killers, I also read a report in the Times of India with this title: "For RSS, Gujarat riots are history." There's no justice for so many ordinary Indians slaughtered, but it's "history." History means so many things to so many people. For some, it is a distant scene: something that they watch as if they were watching a movie or a game of cricket. At the end of it, they can brush it off and get on with their lives. But for some, it is a painful episode which keeps coming back like a recurring nightmare. It leaves an indelible mark on their lives. It is time we started recognizing the value of human life.