The Delhi High Court’s award of life imprisonment to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar for his role in the Sikh riots of 1984 has not only brought relief to the survivors and families but also redeemed our faith in the judiciary (Page 1, “Cong. leader Sajjan Kumar gets life term in anti-Sikh riots case”, December 18). The nation looks forward to a similar dispensation of justice to those affected in the Gujarat riots of 2002 too, where the role of the State government came in for severe criticism by the Supreme Court. One cannot forget its lines that alluded to “modern day Neros looking elsewhere” when people were burning and “probably deliberating on how the perpetrators of the crime could be saved or protected”. When violence is unleashed against the minorities under the tacit approval of the state, suppression or erasure of evidence by those in authority is to be expected. The courts should go the extra mile in unearthing proof to nail the guilty by treating such offences as a “crime against humanity”.
K. Natarajan,
Madurai
The verdict spells hope even after the passage of time. One only hopes that the same fervour applies to the perpetrators of the 2002 Gujarat pogrom The rumoured involvement of people in high places in all these cases and many more needs to be thoroughly investigated and the guilty punished in spite of the high positions they hold in government or a political party.
G.B. Sivanandam,
Coimbatore
It is most tragic that political patronage, administrative complicity and muscle power suppress the truth irrespective of the political party or alliance in power. And the police, who are supposed to bring out the truth, appear to be hand-in-glove with the political class. This verdict only makes us raise our eyebrows as it has taken the judiciary over 30 years to ensure some justice for the families. There needs to be a separate law for crimes against humanity and genocide. Waiting for decades to ensure truth and justice is a bigger crime.
J.P. Reddy,
Nalgonda, Telangana
It is a shame that even after adopting the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, the Genocide Convention and signing the Convention for the Prohibition of Torture, laws that deal with the prohibition of torture and genocide are not reflected in our legal system. Such specific laws are inviolable and a state cannot derogate from such an obligation of protection even in times of war. There is a need now more than ever before to promulgate such laws. Further, there is a need to establish robust procedural laws that deal with riots and mass murders.
Models such as the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals or recent examples such as the tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia can be emulated to quicken the disposal of cases involving mass murders. Perhaps if the government had chosen to set up such a tribunal in 1984, it would not have taken decades for this verdict. Finally, none of this will be possible without collective political commitment.
Surya Rajkumar,
Sonipat, Haryana
The verdict comes as a breath of fresh air in these choked times and is a reminder not to lose faith in justice prevailing. There are a few who still persevere and never lose patience. Jagdish Kaur is the stuff that legends are made of.
Sangeeta Kampani,
New Delhi