Person of the Year : Ashish Khetan

I want to dedicate the last post of the year to the gutsy, ballsy Tehelka reporter, Ashish Khetanwho exposed the men behind the Gujarat pogrom of 2002!!

Of course, now with the election results and Modi back in the saddle, the landscape of debate has changed. Mass media(with few exceptions) is singing hymns of the man's iron-will, economic savviness, political ideology and more...Modi masks are doing brisk business & the Moditva TRPs have over-taken saas-bahu soaps...Judging by the history of judicial probes into riots and government excesses, I don't think the rioters, rapists and murderers will ever get punished!!

But hats off to Tehelka, Tarun Tejpal & his editorial team and in particular Ashish Khetan, who carried this audacious sting operation over a 6 month period, risked his life to bring the gory facts to light.

You can read the cover-story(Tehelka Nov 03,'07 issue)here...

You may like to read another thought provoking write-up by Tarun Tejpal(To Kill A Party, Tehelka, Jan 12 issue)...

From the column "Do we wish to travel on the miraculous road the founding fathers forged: democratic, liberal, inclusive, modern?

Or are we going to careen off into jingoism, bigotry, retrograde religion, and the powermongering of political-corporate cabals?

As a people do we look to becoming modern or merely prosperous?

As a people do we understand that a free society, a democracy, is not just about winning elections but about creating and sustaining institutions that strive for equality, justice and fairplay?

Might is not right. Majority is not right. Money is not right. In the good society, only right is right. And we all know, at all times, the difference between right and wrong.