Less well-to-do youth are migrating to Canada [Images] and USA. In search of better economic prospects both skilled and unskilled labour is leaving in droves. Migrants go to the extent of selling their land to raise money as agents charge around �10,000 to help them leave Indian shores, very often illegally. This exodus is having its repercussions; the demography of Punjab is changing. Seizing the opportunity for any kind of work, impoverished labour is migrating from Bihar.

Over the years, Biharis have even begun making forays into politics. They are able to vote in Punjab and their votes can make a crucial difference to the outcome. Senior Sikh residents of Punjab who suffered the loss of loved ones and property 21 years ago do feel a sense of pain but they still feel part of the Indian nation.

The bitterness of this scarred community would have reduced if those guilty of instigating the 1984 riots had been punished. Five times more people were killed than in the Gujarat carnage in 2002. Slack leadership was blamed for not taking the guilty to task.

Nine commissions or panels have been instituted by the government to inquire into the 1984 riots, starting with the Marwah Commission in November 1984 itself, but all of them have either been ineffectual, wound up or had their findings not acted upon.

An independent citizens group led by Dr Rajni Kothari and retired judge V N Tarkunde published a detailed report, Who are the Guilty? which squarely blamed the government and several leading lights of the then ruling party for inaction and complicity -- but no action was forthcoming.

It took 21 years for the riot victims to get the first semblance of justice. The 339-page Justice G T Nanavati inquiry report (instituted by the previous government in May 2000) was submitted to the present Congress-led government on February 9, 2005 but was not placed before the Indian Parliament until August 8.

The government sought to gloss over the findings in its Action Taken Report, giving a clean chit to the indicted Congress leaders. There was a huge outcry the following day, with public protests and rallies. The Opposition parties, television networks and newspapers condemned the government, forcing it to act.

Two of the accused, including a central minister, were forced to resign. The prime minister, himself a Sikh, apologised for the 1984 riots and made a statement in Parliament on August 11:

On behalf of our government, on behalf of the entire people of this country, I bow my head in shame that such a thing took place... I have no hesitation in apologising to the Sikh community. I apologise not only to the Sikh community but to the whole Indian nation because what took place in 1984 is the negation of the concept of nationhood enshrined in our Constitution. Though we cannot rewrite the past we should have the ability to write a better future for all of us.

For the younger generation all this is history. The death toll in Punjab between 1984 and 1994 was around 25,000. The return of peace and the political process commenced, in a sense, with the signing of an accord on July 24, 1985 between the then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and the Sikh leader, Sant Harcharan Singh Longowal.

This was followed by elections to the Punjab assembly. It culminated in May 1996 when the Akalis supported the right-wing Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, in forming a central government.

Simultaneously the border with Pakistan was barricaded, making infiltration and cross-border terrorism difficult. The state police machinery came down heavily on the militants, often ignoring human rights, in their bid to curb terrorism.

Today, the clock has turned full circle. For the first time ever, India has a Sikh prime minister appointed by the Congress. It also has a Sikh army chief and Sikhs in many important posts. The old glory is returning.

To be continued

Payal Singh Mohanka is a journalist and documentary filmmaker. This article first appeared in the Round Table Journal of Commonwealth Affairs.