London Riots and Indian Police

I have been missing the action back in UK. Since the past two weeks I am in India, probably going through the worst phase of my personal life. But have been keenly following the events in London and elsewhere, the pictures being beamed continuously on the TV screens reminds of the black and white pictures of the Blitz, which people in the UK are so used to seeing, every other programme on TV is about world war 2 and the sacrifices made by the British people.

Whatever the reasons for the riots in London and elsewhere, it made an amazing viewing, the rioter's had an upper hand all along, they pillaged through the streets looting, setting fire to things and the police seemed so incapable of controlling them, they almost were mute spectators and remained largely passive. Switch places to New Delhi where again there was a demonstration in front of the Parliament house, and looking at the way the Delhi Police dealt with it was amazing, it was just brutal force. The police were outnumbered as in case of London, but they did the Lathi Charge and used water cannon to disperse the crowd effectively, without much damage to either parties and also to the public and public property.

So whats wrong with the London police, who have let the crowd of troublemakers amok, buildings burning, shops looted , cars burning  and police largely helpless. The fault lies in the training, British police are not trained to deal with large scale rioting, apart from the police force in Northern Ireland, whereas the major task of Indian Police is to control the crowd trouble be it the Hindu - Muslim riots, the language riots, the caste riots, the farmers riots, the political faction riots the list goes on. The Indian police are trained to deal with these riots with an iron hand, starting with the Lathi or Baton charge, rubber bullet firing and finally firing live bullets to kill the rioters.

The iron handedness of the Indian police goes back to the British era, where the British used the police force to implement their agendas, they did not just remain a force to maintain peace and calm and provide security, they were used as a force to create fear among the local populace and suppress any uprising in favour of freedom or against the British, that legacy has been continued into the present day, Indian people not only hate but fear the police as they are rude, brutal and hard handed with everything they deal with.

I suggest the London police learn a few things from their Indian counterparts, UK being a welfare state where the government looks after everything basic that a human need to survive, still riots happen and police stays calm.  The double standards of the British come to fore once again,when they used brutal force to suppress the food riots of the 1940's during the Bengal Famine, has life come full circle?.