Tears of a Nation

"The agony of shattered dreams
or that of a condemned station
augmented by haunting screams
and the renascent tears of a Nation"

It was early evening of November 1st, 1984 and Block 32 of Trilokpuri, a resettlement colony in east Delhi, was gently bearing witness to the end of yet another day. The women were beginning to prepare dinner while their men-folk were returning from work. Suddenly the streets were filled with a fierce uproar. Men, turned blind by hatred, stormed into every house. Women were raped in the presence of their families while their terrified families pleaded for mercy. In one of the many incidents, a woman was gang-raped in front of her 17-year-old son; before leaving, the marauders torched the boy. Scores of families were killed over the three days and nights of non-stop violence: most of them were butchered by putting burning tyres around theirs necks. Trilokpuri, like the rest of the Sikh settlements in and around Delhi was turned to ashes. Street dogs gorged on rotting human entrails; drains overflowed with charred and mutilated corpses; women, wailing and clutching children fled the wild mobs armed with every conceivable weapon. The very last shred of human dignity was torn away and trampled under foot.
21 years later, a packed upper house witnessed a particularly somber scene. The Prime Minister of the nation, ironically a Sikh himself, apologized for the tragedy that took place in 1984. "I have no hesitation in apologizing to the Sikh community. I apologize not only to the Sikh community, but to the whole Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is the negation of the concept of nationhood enshrined in our Constitution," he said. An emotional Dr. Singh said that while one cannot rewrite the past, "…as human beings we have the will power and we have the ability to write better future for all of us".
1984 Delhi to 1993 Bombay to 2002 Gujarat – The situation remains the same. As a country we fail to protect the secular fabric that binds us. Humiliating history also fails to prevent us from committing such heinous crimes against humanity and against the very concept of nationhood. As soon as such communal crimes are committed, various leaders of the society start the blame game to ensure maximum mileage for the next election. No one thinks, even for a second, about the corpses that once had the breath of life but now have only a family to weep for them.
The date or the community is irrelevant. True relevance is only of the fact that the nation must be responsible for its people. That means we must accept responsibility for each other. This can happen only if we learn to accept our diversity as our greatest boon and learn to love and live with each other.