it stands out even in a country inured to mass violence-3000 members of a minority community slaughtered over three days in 1984, right in India's capital. twenty-three years on neither the organizers of the massacre nor the state players who facilitated it have been punished, despite prolonged inquiries and trial. this massacres of Sikhs in the wake of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination has turned out to be a reality check on India's much-touted institution of the rule of law.