The Maharashtra Government's criticism and rejection of the ... report ... not only reflects its deep- seated majoritarian bias but also raises strong doubts about its ability to be an impartial interlocutor in the discharging of its responsibility too govern a pluralist civil society ...

... In the case of the Srikrishna probe, its value as an independent monitor of the circumstances that underlay the sordid events of December 1992 and January 1993 in which more than a thousand lives were lost, cannot be overstated. ... The rejection of the ... report was possibly a logical culmination of the attitude of the Shiv Sena dispensation towards the entire exercise of apportioning responsibility for the sordid events of 1992-93. Yet while the Maharashtra Government has set up a committee to examine the cases of "delinquency" by certain police officers during the riots in Mumbai, on the basis of the Srikrishna report, its staunch refusal to accept the same report's indictment of the Shiv Sena's incendiary role ... is a jarring contrast. There is no escape from facing the political implications of the partisan and inflammatory role played by the Shiv Sena chief and his followers ...

The Chief Minister and his colleagues must realise that refusing to go along with the basic norms of democracy is not just morally reprehensible. It is also politically shortsighted as such brazen defiance ... will only result in a tremendous loss of moral authority and political credibility in the public arena.