PM Manmohan Singh quoted in The Pioneer*:

The riots (of 1984) were painful, but cannot be kept alive for ever…

Some questions that come to mind:
How long does it take to forget pain? Can “memories” really be forgotten?
How does one seek forgiveness? Can one be forgiven or is punishment the only option?
How does one seek atonement for something like this?
What would be the correct “Dharma” of a leader in such a situation?
Thoughts and comments welcome as always.
Related: All the past Quotes of the Week here.
*Front Page story titled: “Nitish suitors turn baiters” …

Connect the dots.
…The Interpol has removed the red-corner notice issued against Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian businessman who is being sought in India  for criminal charges for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal…The 12-year-long Interpol red corner notice…has been withdrawn by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
This comes just three weeks before the Congress-led UPA government’s term ends. [ News dt 28th Apr '09 ]
Next,
…The Supreme Court on Monday (27th) asked the Special Investigation Team to probe a complaint against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi that he and …

…in which I get annoyed by Praful Bidwai‘s gratuitous reference to “ethnic cleansing” and “communal clashes” while conveniently forgetting Assam where these words have taken on an entirely different meaning…and the scale of human misery has well surpassed the killings and attacks in Orissa, Karnataka etc..
Related Post:
The not so “communal” clashes in Assam 

1. DGP and BJP MP B P Singhal examines “The sting and the truth about Gujarat” including this Aaj Tak faux pas:
It was therefore truly shocking that on 25.8.2007, Aaj Tak harped on the same old refrain that “Modi did not call the army until three days had passed“. Even more outrageous was their insistance on this point. When Aaj Tak contacted me on phone to get my response, I told the anchor that the Godhra carnage took place on February 27, 2002, that the Hindu backlash commenced on February …

In an eerily prescient post a few weeks back, I had written: Our Kurukshetra is approaching fast.
The terrorist attacks in Ahmedabad and Bangalore are merely the latest consequences of a mis-guided, half-hearted approach to tackle terrorism and ignoring the root of the problem – which is the ideology of “Jihad”…and Islamism…This is the ideology that led to 9/11, the massacre of Beslan and numerous attacks since then – a disturbingly large number of them in Bharat.
As long as we don’t recognise this, we will be fighting the wrong enemy (not …

As the Supreme Court�asked the Narendra Modi government to set up a Special Investigiation Team to probe the major Godhra riot cases, I came across this article, “A Requiem for Godhra“�by�U. Narayana Das. Below are�some excerpts (emphasis mine):
Excerpts:
“….When the whole body is on fire, the victim is �beyond exhaustion,� locked into a private world where all existence is a miasma� to use a� popular novelist�s quaint description of pain and �the will to survive ceases�, to invert his expression. The body prays the good lord to end it all!
…This was …

This thought was prompted by an exchange in the comments section of this post.
Courtesy of Acorn, please read and reflect on this extract from a speech by the Honourable Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on 25th November 1949:
“If we wish to maintain democracy not merely in form, but also in fact, what must we do?
The first thing in my judgement we must do is to hold fast to constitutional methods of achieving our social and economic objectives. It means we must abandon the bloody methods of revolution. It means that we …

A few days ago I came across this piece by Kishore Asthana which makes a number of important points that form the backdrop to Godhra.
I am reproducing some excerpts below but I would encourage you to read the article in full: Tehelka�s Gujarat Expose and the Deeper Truth
Excerpts (emphasis mine):
“……Look at the progression. Arguments with tea vendors and rumours of kidnapping lead a Muslim mob to burn 60 people alive. The burning of 60 Hindu pilgrims results in carnage all over the state. It is a case of a petty …

…which our “independent” and “alert” media seems to have forgotten.
From: Conspiracy of Silence on Nandigram�s Muslim Victims�- by Yossarin
Excerpts:
In the perverse value system eschewed by Sitaram Yechury the Tehelka that was not is germane for discussion in Parliament but the CPI-Mafioso�s war on the Muslims of Nandigram is not.
So what perverse logic did Yechury offer ? “Nandigram was a state law and order subject“
…It is surprising Mr. Yechury expects to be taken seriously by the people of this nation with such specious logic.
Let us see why Mr. Yechury�s logic …

*** CAUTION: Long Post ***
This post comprises two separate articles from Shri Arvind Lavakare which I am reproducing in full below.
They are from 2004 and 2006 respectively and offer food for thought, especially in the context of the Tehelka sting operation (Read Offstumped’s�take on Tehelka and BarbarIndian’s posts on it here�and here).
In the first article, Shri Lavakare makes the following main points:

To label the riots in Gujarat as “genocide” is wrong
Friction between Hindus and Muslims is not new and is not a creation of the BJP/VHP/RSS (“there had been communal …