The three-member panel consisted of a BJP representative who was on an aggressive mission to convert Hindus watching the programme to sangh parivar ideology. Of a Congress representative who was unrepentant about the events of 1984 and vague and inept on the present communal challenge. And the co-editor of CC, who was highlighting, with facts and figures, the criminality of the powers that be in the massacre of minorities and affirming the principle of equality and the rights of each and every Indian citizen, cutting across all divisions.

And in the audience there was Darshan Kaur, the woman who was witness to the killing of her family members, including her husband, by an organised group led by top Congress leaders in 1984 and who, 19 years later, is still fighting a relentless legal battle to bring the guilty to book.

For anyone watching events unfold since the 1990s, the picture is unmistakably familiar. I felt as if, in this marathon struggle against mighty criminals, Darshan Kaur was passing on the baton to the co-editor of CC. And therein lies the importance of CC.

Throughout the last decade, CC has reminded us, each and every month, that we have to use all our meagre resources skilfully to fight the communal forces. Not just to protect the democratic rights of minorities, but to safeguard the fundamental rights of every citizen of India.

I should make a special mention here of the publication by the Sabrang team of Damning Verdict, the report of the Justice Srikrishna Commission on the 1992-93 Mumbai carnage. Talking of the responsibility of intellectuals, Noam Chomsky says that it is pointless to ‘speak truth to the power’ because they already know it. Real responsibility lies in ‘speaking truth to the people’, who, on knowing it, can change the situation.

I cannot find any better example than Sabrang’s publication of this report (which the then Sena-BJP government was bent on keeping under wraps) to drive home what the meaning of intellectual responsibility is in our increasingly troubled times. Personally, I am quite indebted to CC for stimulating me to realise my own intellectual responsibility as an ordinary citizen.

The road seems to be quiet, long, and on this starless night, darkness threatens to engulf us. Let’s walk together.