The official narrative of the Sohrabuddin encounter case goes like this: An LET operative out to kill the chief minister, was killed in an encounter in 2005. The criminal who operated in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is bumped off not by the police of these two states, but by the Gujarat police, and that too when traveling in a bus from Maharashtra to Andhra Pradesh. All this happened without any official paperwork. Not surprisingly, post 2002, the system, its political bosses and their pets in the police force did not feel the need for paperwork or the rule book.

But the rule book seems to be catching up finally.

The 2002 riots propelled Modi to a saffron victory; he was hailed as Gujarat ka sher (lion); he could encash votes not in the name of BJP, but in his own name. Modi, who works for Gujarat ka gaurav. Modi, who wants 5 crore Gujaratis to surpass the growth rate not just of India, but of the world. This could be changing.

There could be a parable in an unrelated event that happened exactly a year ago on May 1, 2006 in Vadodara. A dargah was razed by Vadodara Municipal Corporation ostensibly for road widening. Modi then, perhaps for the first time ever in his tenure as chief minister, chose to visit Muslim victims of the violence. Both the police and civic chiefs were transferred. Now two police trucks watch permanently over the spot, while the traffic inches around it.

... contd.