In the political uproar that will inevitably follow the release of an inquiry report into what is still regarded by some as independent India’s most traumatic and divisive event, it is worth our while to pause and consider the extraordinary disservice that this delay has done to India’s politics and to our progress. For one, setting a precedent for unending inquiries encourages the political leadership to postpone any tough decisions by sending them off to an interminable commission.

But there’s yet another concern. Events like the Babri demolition — and the Gujarat and Bombay riots, and the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi — need to be followed by fact-finding, by sifting the rumours from the truth, by a mechanism of accountability that prevents people’s characters being mauled by the Chinese whispers of gossip as well as ensuring that those who bear responsibility can’t get away by saying “If there was evidence, wouldn’t I have been indicted?” Since the Shah Commission probed the Emergency of 30 years ago — and had its final report “restricted” such that, possibly, no complete version survives — India’s commissions of inquiry have failed at this basic function. But on the strength of its unprecedented half-century of extensions, the one-man Liberhan Commission stands head and shoulders above the rest of this constellation of failures. Regardless of the report, the Liberhan Commission has already failed at its job, and failed miserably.