If one could ask the Congress about its inability and unwillingness to pose serious questions to the BJP and Narendra Modi about their role in the violence of 2002, and also the Modi government’s reluctance to heal the wounds of Gujarat, how would the Congress respond? It is tempting to think that like Narendra Modi, the Congress might also walk out of a TV show if pressed too hard. But if it were to respond, it would give a series of pragmatic and ‘real-politic’ responses.

If the Congress were to be candid, a quality that it has lost, it might admit that the Congress’s own record in dealing with communal and sectarian violence has been poor. Its commitment to ensuring justice for the victims of violence has also frayed. It might remind us, if the Congress itself has not forgotten it, of Nehru and Sardar, and tell us that the commitment and the will that was shown by the nascent Indian state while dealing with the post-Partition violence remains unmatched by any subsequent government. It might also remind us of that noble gesture of Manmohan Singh, who expressed unqualified regret and sought forgiveness for the role of the party in the anti-Sikh violence of 1984.

The Congress might also say that it indeed is a ‘system’ as imagined by Rajni Kothari, that the Congress in Delhi and the Congress in Gujarat are not guided by similar perceptions about BJP-ruled Gujarat. And this allows Sonia Gandhi to unequivocally condemn the ‘barbaric acts’ of 2002 and also permit the Gujarat Congress to remain unabashedly silent on the Tehelka expose.

... contd.