THE WRATH YATRA

The decade of progress was greyed by smoke and ash from riots, blasts and suicide attacks-a dark undertow that reminded India its inner demons had yet to be tamed

- 

Just before this millennium began, in those heady days when devices and ideas were being advertised into the home of every Indian with a conviction that no sickness is immune to the loving touch of foreign capital, India's internal security problems marred an otherwise optimistic time.

Its seeds had been sown in the last season of frenzy. Right after watching the Babri Masjid domes come down on live TV, the nation had begun a long vigil as senseless violence rattled urban centres-months of rioting in Bombay had climaxed with 12 blasts in early 1993. Then had come a lull. That was broken in Delhi, in 1996, as a blast tore through Lajpat Nagar, claiming 13 lives, and mourned on the nightly news shoulder-to-shoulder with Vajpayee's scramble for the prime ministership.