As a Sikh, I have been greatly touched and impressed after reading this book. I, my family, and my late mother, who was then of the age of 101 years, had undergone this ordeal of the most harrowing experience of our lives from 31 October 1984 to 5 November 1984, but we survived because our Hindu relatives and friends sheltered us in their houses. My mother remarked, "when Mahatma Gandhi had passed away in 1948, there was no commotion, but when Indira Gandhi has now died, there is a great commotion in Delhi and other cities of Northern India."

This book in its "Annexure" states that even a Hindu police officer, according to Hindu victim – Mandodari Devi’s affidavit before the Misra Commission – tried to protect Sikh victims, but the rioters even attacked him resulting in his death. This book gives excerpts of testimonies before the Misra and Nanavati Commissions. The top Indians, like Air Chief Marshall Arjan Singh (retd.) and Lt. General Jagjit Singh Arora (retd.) who had won the war in Bangladesh in 1971, said that the President of India, whom they met, Home Minister and Lt. Governor of Delhi, failed to perform their duty. The President, who is constitutionally the head of the Indian State and Indian army said "I do not have powers to intervene". As such, the Government of India, during the first week of November 1984, did not function at all. According to government figures, 2733 Sikhs in Delhi alone were massacred, although, in reality, the number was much greater. As my good friend, the late Kuldeep Singh,of Gurmat Prachar Trust was killed in Shakarpur when, with folded hands, he came out of his house to appeal to the rioters, but they immediately killed him. 1234 deaths had occurred in East Delhi alone, and in one block of that colony, around 400 murders had taken place.

The whole genocide of the Sikhs was with the full connivance of the government. The massacre was the result of a conspiracy hatched on the evening of 31 October 1984 in the house of the then Union Cabinet Minister H.K.L. Bhagat, in a secret meeting attended by police officers who were told to let the killings take place and then erase all traces of the crime. No policeman should intervene.

This book reveals, for the first time, several aspects of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots that had so far remained hidden from the public’s scrutiny. The first commission of enquiry, namely, Misra Commission, was belatedly appointed, which held in camera proceedings only. They, charged the Sikhs who had used their guns in self defence, rather than punishing the perpetrators of the crime. The second commission of enquiry of G.T. Nanavati was appointed in 2005, but it has not been able to do any justice to Sikh victims. So far only 13 persons have been punished in half a dozen murder cases relating to the carnage.

As such, the quest to know as to why this carnage was allowed to happen despite strong institutional safeguards created by the constitution of India and in the law against atrocities directed at minorities.

Prime minister Rajiv Gandhi on 19thNovember 1984 made a public statement "Some riots took place in the country following the murder of Indiraji. We know the people were very angry, and for a few days, it seemed that India had been shaken. But when a mighty tree falls, it is only natural that the earth around it does shake a little."