This newspaper had recognised the tragedy as one that epitomised both the promise of the India story, and the inherent threats facing it. S. Manjunath, like Satyendra Dubey in 2003, represented GenNext — highly talented, educated and dedicated people who believed in the country’s future. When they confronted corruption they could not, like so many of their counterparts, look the other way and carry on. Dubey put his disquiet down on paper by penning a letter to the prime minister pointing out that his cherished Golden Quadrilateral project entailed, at least in the Gaya stretch, the “great loot of public money”. Manjunath, when he discovered a petrol pump selling adulterated fuel, threatened to revoke its licence. Instead of being rewarded for their courage — a courage to resist the corrupt, a courage that India badly needs — both men paid for it with their lives.

The issues these two murders raise remain unaddressed. The contractor mafia still exercises a stranglehold over road-building projects in the country, the oil adulteration mafia continues to make money out of spiking petrol and diesel, helped in no small measure by the misplaced government subsidy on kerosene. Worse, the Centre has not moved an inch to make the lives of those who confront corruption any less lonely, any more secure. The proposed whistle-blower’s legislation remains in cold storage. This verdict from the Lakhimpur Kheri court comes as a reminder of the great deal that still needs to be done in tribute to the commitment of Manjunath and Dubey.