The first one came before parliament the other day in reply to a question. Members justifiably felt shocked over the slow pace of punishment to the police officials, who were openly involved in the killing and looting. Even the action taken against some 12 officials in Delhi was cursory, not beyond withholding increment or administering censure.

Home Minister L.K. Advani was unhappy over the light penalty. I do not know why he expressed his helplessness when Delhi is under the overall control of the Home Ministry. However, he readily agreed to the appointment of a commission to go into the matter de novo.

It was strange that the Congress members remained silent during the discussion as if they feared that the commission would point its finger at their party. Opposition leader Manmohan Singh should have spoken there and then. But he kept quiet and this was misunderstood.

His subsequent statement that the Congress had no objection to the constitution of a commission came hours later. Maybe, he had to consult party president Sonia Gandhi since the 1984 riots are said to have cast a shadow on Rajiv Gandhi. Poor Manmohan Singh has been receiving hate-mail and his children, threats.

Advani reluctant

The Congress apart, Advani should have gone ahead with the appointment of the commission when the entire House welcomed the proposal. But he was reluctant. He explained to me that since the Congress had attacked the BJP for filing the Bofors gun case in the court, he did not want to be maligned for "politicising" the 1984 riots.

Advani may be right in thinking that way. But it does not lessen the crime of those who participated in the killing and looting. It is an open secret that some Delhi Congress leaders instigated the mob and that the police were also involved.

Rajiv Gandhi was then the new prime minister. People, particularly the Sikhs have not forgotten his observation: Jab ek bada ped girta hai to kuch to zamin hilti hai (when one big tree falls, the earth shakes to some extent).

I do not know whether the commission can bring out anything new after 15 years. But the passage of time helps sometimes to see things more clearly. The crime has been looked into but the motive has been ignored.

The commission may be able to throw light on the reason for making the Sikhs a target and why the authorities were late in acting against the rioters. The earlier commissions and committees have gone into the nitty-gritty of law and order. The new commission should go into the political aspect. Why did the Congress leaders jump into the fray?

The Home Ministry can tear a leaf out of South Africa's book and appoint a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The statements made before it were not punishable but those who made them were truthful. The TRC made it clear that it wanted the culprits to have the catharsis of confession.

The commission should also examine Manmohan Singh's statement during the election that the RSS, not the Congress, was responsible for the 1984 riots. This observation is said to have been responsible for his defeat.

The Congress may have partly washed away its sins when it has lent its voice to the demand on the appointment of the commission. A Sikh Lok Sabha member of the Congress said that his party would welcome the scrutiny by a commission.

But his was a lone observation. When he made it he was neither backed by the party spokesman nor by Sonia Gandhi. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has also said that the appointment of the commission depended on the Congress Party's okaying the proposal.

Now that the Congress has amended its mistake and has supported the proposal of a commission, there should be an early announcement about it. If an eminent person from the South were to head it, the involvement of the North would not be suspected.

That Attorney General Soli Sorabji has been consulted shows that the government is on the job. He was brought into the picture before the matter came up before the Rajya Sabha the second time.

On that occasion, the government should have announced categorically that the commission would be constituted. Instead, leader of the House, Jaswant Singh, said that the government would consider appointing the commission. Why this equivocal attitude?

The appointment of the commission may prick the BJP conscience. It may decide to take action against the killers and the looters in Mumbai. The situation at that time (December 1996-January 1997) was so bad that civil liberty groups requested the President of India to send the army to set things right.

Resemblance

An eminent retired judge of the Mumbai High Court summed up the situation when he said in an interview that the streets of Mumbai resembled the streets of Nazi Germany. The attacks on Muslims and their houses were not sporadic or spontaneous but "very much planned and systematic." Over 1,000 people were killed and property worth Rs.15 billion destroyed.

The Shiv Sena government, in which the BJP was a partner, was held responsible by the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Commission. The judge directly and indirectly criticised Sena-BJP leaders for participation in the violence. But to date even officers who have been indicted in the commission's report have not been punished.

I once asked a question in parliament on the non-compliance of the Srikrishna report. Advani said in reply that the report had first to be accepted by the state government. Since it had not accepted it, he said, no action could be taken by the Centre.

Now that the Congress-led coalition has accepted the report and has promised action within two months, Advani should have no hesitation in punishing the IAS and IPS officers, who have been named in the commission report. Both services are under the Home Ministry.

There are reports that the Maharashtra government, which has a wafer-thin majority in the state assembly, may not take on the saffron combine, particularly when the action would mean moving against Sena chief Bal Thackeray. I hope that the Congress-led government does not put the report on the back burner.

Commissions have no meaning if the government drags its feet when it comes to taking action on their recommendations. Past experience shows that no government or party has followed the advice of any commission, much less punished those who have been mentioned by name.

The Shah Commission, which went into the excesses committed during the emergency (1975-77), had proposed a look by outsiders into the working of all police agencies, including the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation.

But nothing has been done because the agencies are afraid to be exposed. And working hand in glove with the party in power, they have been politicised. The CBI's credibility has come to be questioned following a recent case where the agency is said to have manipulated a murder case because the accused was a police officer's son.

In fact, there is a need to overhaul the entire police machinery and its orientation in dealing with the public, particularly the phenomenon of communal violence. The force is contaminated. As was seen in Delhi in 1984 and in Mumbai in 1996-97, the rioting, ultimately, came down to confrontation between the minorities and the police. This continues to happen even today.

Something has to be done about the religiosity of policemen. At least temples, mosques and gurdwaras at the Police Lines should be closed. Those who want to pray can go to places in the city. Otherwise, we are playing with fire.