The terror in Punjab was not created in a vacuum. The events of the early eighties were the spark that ignited the fire; but it was fuelled by the deliberate distortion of the message of Sikhism by those who had donned the mantle of Sikh leadership in this century. This leadership had seized control of Sikh shrines, and set itself up as the final arbiter of the Faith. However, this was not enough to satisfy the powerlust of these petty men. They used the Gurudwaras as a stepping stone to an even more lucrative destination: the state legislature. They cloaked political demands in a religious garb, and for decades propounded a creed of hatred, swearing at every turn in the political circus that the Panth was 'imperilled.' This venomous rhetoric was adopted and translated into action by the terrorists who eventually captured the communal plank. When the time came to reap the whirlwind, the 'leaders of the faith' simply abdicated responsibility and handed over the holiest of Sikh shrines to murderers and rapists. The murderers and rapists are now gone. But the leaders and the institutions that produced the malignancy of terror again occupy centre-stage in the politics of Punjab. Are we condemned to repeat the ruinous cycle of the past?