THE week of the first anniversary of 26/11 began with the release of the Liberhan Report. I was not sure whether to cry or laugh. But one thing is for certain: no one would appoint a commission to examine 26/11. It may not even submit its report before the next century.

Of course, one did not expect much from Liberhan. One thing the Indian establishment has learnt from the British is that if you want to sweep something under the carpet, appoint a commission. Then select someone with an impeccable establishment reputation to head it. You don’t even have to tell the person heading the commission that a whitewash is required. He knows it instinctively. Here in London, we are now into a fourth inquiry into the Iraq war and we all know that it will not name the guilty.

So it is with Liberhan. No doubt he is an honest upright and incorruptible man. But then he has stretched caution to its limits and taken seventeen years to submit a report. Why did it take so long? I do not know the facts but I can hazard a guess. A commission appointed under the Congress PM, especially one as guilty of studied inaction as Narasimha Rao (Home Minister during the 1984 Delhi riots), could not submit its report while he was PM. It would have been too embarrassing to tell the truth to power. But then it took another eight years before another Congress government appeared on the scene. Being a cautious man, Liberhan waited till he was sure that the Congress was back in power permanently. That took another five years. Voila! We now have a report that says it was all the fault of the BJP, the RSS, the VHP and any other non-Congress body one can find.

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