Minorities

Two very different yet related developments have been on my mind today...

First the Nanavati report on the 1984 anti - sikh riots...and the other a Supreme Court ruling on awarding minority status to Jains.

The former shows how hollow the actions of our governments are...how little value is attahced to life. 3000 affected families still in search of closure 21 years after their lives were changed so brutally. 21 years after the massacre, this is what the victims get in the name of justice...from a government formed in the name of secularism...
Should the members of the community be blamed if they lose faith in the state? Who will be responsible if these people feel alienated and insecure? Who will be responsible if they feel threatened enough to seek their own land...isnt that what happened in 1947?? Doesnt this create an atmosphere of mutual fear and distrust posing serious threat to the integrity of the nation sowing of seeds of multinationalism or at the very least demand for even more special rights and safeguards?
I was talking to a friend and all he had to say was "God will punish them!"
Why should we have to wait for god's intervention (if such thing exists!)

Are we living in a civilized world?

The other news...the supreme court's ruling on everyone's quest to be called a minority is a welcome development. (Though in the light of the treatment meted out to the sikhs, I am forced to have doubts)

The ruling says that the practice of listing religious groups as 'minority communities' should be discouraged and the list gradually be done away with as it promotes divisive tendencies to weaken the nation. All this is true and this remains the ultimate challenge for the state...but before that maybe we need to overhaul this screwed up political system of ours..

"Mujhe Change Chhahiye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"