Tehelka‘s revelations on the single-minded precision of the scientists, attendants and masterminds of the Gujarat Genocide will surprise only fully paid-up members of the lunatic fringe. But as the magazine’s editor of investigations Harinder Baweja writes, the issue goes beyond blood and death; it goes to the very fundamentals of our democracy, a liberal secular democracy.

“…the Police and the Judiciary—the two pillars that ordinary Indians bank on—stand naked. Two public prosecutors are on camera acknowledging allegiance to their faith over their profession—paying homage to a warped sense of religion over nobility of duty. Details of how they are actually working to help the guilty escape the law. How they have even turned brokers and have already helped an accused—who had used a sword to cut a man to pieces — by offering money to the victim’s family.”

The question, therefore, is: will the long arm of the law finally catch up with chief scientist Narendra Modi who now stands squarely exposed in the town centre? Or will he, like Bal Thackeray of Bombay 1993 and the Bhagats and Tytlers of 1984, walk free till all but the very end? Should the UPA government act to demonstrate that there is something called law and order? Or will it cringe because it might help Modi in “polarising the Hindu vote” in the run-up the assembly elections? Should the Supreme Court take suo motu notice of the murderous machinations of the “Modern-Day Nero“? Or, arise Jaya Jaitely, are all sting operations fabricated until proven genuine?