Decembers have been unusually hot for India. Babri fell to communalism, Bombay fell to riots, Narasimha Rao fell to a briefcase - all in this inauspicious month. In the last five years, this last child of the year has tested the conscience of the nation much too persistently.
And December 2001 was no exception. It saw the secure cocoon of Parliament come under an impunity-defying attack. In the most audacious terrorist attack till date, LeT and JeM terrorists, on an unsuspecting morning of December 13, gatecrashed into Parliament House after breaching security at Gate No 12. In the ensuing gun-battle, five terrorists, six Delhi policemen and a Parliament gardener were killed.