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[Blwe_torch]

Torch tyrants run Delhi
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT 

 
A road, which runs parallel to Rajpath and usually bustles with traffic, lies deserted on Thursday evening. Picture by Rajesh Kumar 
New Delhi, April 17: Indians today got to see what life in China is like, but only on television, through a charade played out on their own capital’s streets.

Delhi allowed China to use the iconic Rajpath to display posters against the Dalai Lama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the western media, while clinically clamping down on Tibetan protests.

As the Olympic torch trundled down Rajpath — hidden from ordinary Indian eyes by an iron curtain of security — official Chinese delegates were allowed to walk and bus with propa*a placards.

“Da Lie Lama”, screamed a poster from the windows of a red-and-white bus carrying flag-waving Chinese delegates to Rajpath before the start of the torch run. As they got off the bus and walked towards a podium at India Gate, the Chinese held up several placards.

“Mr Sarkozy, go on! Waste your bed,” said one that hung from the neck of one of the Chinese. It carried a picture of the French President and his wife Carla Bruni.

During the Lhasa protests, Sarkozy was reported to have hinted that he was open to boycotting the Olympics inauguration over the alleged human rights violations by China.

Another placard said: “Shame CNN, Shame BBC, Great China.”


Not a single Indian, barring security personnel and select journalists, was allowed to witness the 2.3km relay as it snaked down the street from Vijay Chowk to the National Stadium at India Gate.

Central Delhi looked a ghost city, with the normally bustling streets empty apart from the security officials deployed to turn away anyone hoping to glimpse the showpiece event.

Hundreds of sports fans — students who bunked school, professionals who skipped work — had been allowed to sit on the lawns alongside Rajpath, but were rudely shooed away around 3pm. The relay was to start at 4.

The Indian Olympic Association had issued glossy passes to correspondents and photographers, and at no stage had the IOA or police mentioned that any other document would be required.

Yet, after journalists were allowed into the five media enclosures put up alongside Rajpath, officers began demanding an additional document from those inside.

Between 3.15 and 3.30, a correspondent from The Telegraph was pushed and abused by a senior Delhi police officer and, on objecting, kicked and slapped by constables.

All this for peacefully questioning why the security apparatus of a democracy was so paranoid that it suddenly couldn’t trust passes issued by its own Olympic authorities.

Tibetans were arrested for protesting against the relay at four spots more than a kilometre from Rajpath.

The efforts to please the Chinese seem to have worked. Jiang Xiaoyu, vice-chairman of the Games organising committee, profusely thanked Delhi and India “for peacefully hosting the run” in his speech at the end of the relay.

“Thank you,” a beaming Jiang said to Suresh Kalmadi, India’s Olympic chief, before handing over a memento to Delhi chief minister Sheila Dik*, as athletes who ran with the torch clapped.
 
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080418/jsp/frontpage/story_9154241.jsp

[dextrous]

this is shocking