Although religious plurality and secularism are intrinsic to our democracy and Constitution, it took a mere handful of warped communalists to manipulate the destruction of a historic monument, the Babri Masjid, on December 6, 1992.

What followed was a trail of riots in several villages, towns and cities, setting ablaze sentiments and lives. In Bombay, or Mumbai as now known, a chilling nightmare unfurled. A busy, cheerfully cosmopolitan city was aflame with “ethnic hate”. Violence had cut through its soul. Death stalked the streets. Humiliating, stripped of all moral code. Those who survived lost everything but their lives. The debris still remains,
swept under cover of a city rushing through each frenetic day.