Torch: Kiran Bedi pulls out, cites 145;overdone146; security

The Olympic torch continued to make news on Wednesday with India8217;s first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi pulling out...

The Olympic torch continued to make news on Wednesday with India8217;s first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi pulling out, saying the 8220;overbearing8221; and 8220;overdone8221; security had turned the relay into a 8220;painful hypocrisy8221;.

Bedi is the second high-profile personality to pull out of the race after Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia, but unlike the football star she did not cite the Tibetan cause as her reason. Instead, she concentrated her ire against the 8220;hysterical8221; security arrangements being made in Delhi for the April 17 relay, which she said would 8220;encage8221; the torch.

8220;Overdone security has taken away the spirit of the Olympic torch. And I do not want to be a part of this feeling of insecurity and fear. It reduces it to mere tokenism and a hypocritical formality 8212; not exhilaration as it stands for,8221; Bedi told The Indian Express.

Asked whether she would prefer the scrapping of the torch relay in the event of it having no chance of getting a free run, she said, 8220;It is as good as scrapped. This is a painful hypocrisy being performed, of which I have bowed out.8221;

The Olympic torch relay has generated huge controversy worldwide, attracting extensive protests in London and Paris from sympathisers of Tibetan cause and activists who accuse China of human rights abuse.

In India, which hosts a significant number of Tibetan exiles, the fear of widespread protests has forced the Government to restrict the relay to a three-km route on the Rajpath, a route which can be conveniently sanitised by the security forces.

Bedi, a former national tennis champion, said the security arrangements being made by the Government, including surveillance by helicopters, was 8220;suffocating8221; and aimed primarily at snuffing out dissent.

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Asked why she had avoided mentioning the Tibetan cause, she said, 8220;When I decided to run initially, it was in the spirit of sport. I did not want to mix it with Tibet issue even though they have a right to lawful dissent. For me, it was the exhilaration of what the torch carried aloft that was prime. But now it is encaged.8221;

Interestingly, Bedi8217;s well-laid website, kiranbedi.com was inaugurated by none other than the Dalai Lama in April 2000.

8220;We are a democracy and we are used to handling such situations. Of course, the Tibetans have a right to seek their snatched away homeland. And we need not snuff it. But manage it. This is what democratic lawful policing is all about.8221;