(Times of India
30 Oct 2007
1984 anti-Sikh riots probe panel diluted facts: Book
NEW DELHI: A new book on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in the Capital claims that the Ranganath Misra Commission which probed the carnage presented a "diluted" version of events and also blames the police for the mass killings.
When a Tree Shook Delhi , written by senior editor Manoj Mitta and advocate for many of the victims' families, H S Phoolka, claims to give an "uncensored" insight into the events.
It details incidents, particularly in East Delhi, which show complicity of the police in the rioting that broke out after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination on October 31, 1984.
Beginning with the attack on the then President Giani Zail Singh's cavalcade in front of AIIMS, the book traces the genesis of the violence through eyewitness accounts and the investigations by Phoolka as counsel for the victims.
"Far from booking aggressors, the police cracked down on the victims -- the Sikhs who had been exercising the right of self defence at home," it says.
"The essence of all the findings on the Block 11 events in Kalyanpuri is unmistakable: that the police colluded with a mob to kill members of a minority community," says the book.
On the Ranganath Misra Commission constituted to probe the violence, it says "given the circumstances in which it was appointed, the Misra Commission faced a credibility crisis from its very birth. For almost six months, the government had blatantly stone-walled all demands for an inquiry into the carnage".
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