Accounts Of A National Trauma

Public memory is short. A regime of public accountability requires safe-guards against the brevity of memory. For a nation such as India, where the governmental presence is looming and large, disclosure norms are of recent vintage and their functioning leaves much to be desired. Official records are quirkly maintained and declassification rules neither transparent nor consistently implemented. Events of consequence are mostly fixed in public memory through sporadic media reports and increasingly ritualistic anniversary observances.