Wrong Place,Wrong Colour

Ordsall is an unlikely neighbourhood to be making news in the UK,lacking as it does any historically significant places or celebrity residents. Wild weeds surround vast tracts of land here,with factories and under-construction sites around lending it an air of desolation.

It is dotted by Sainsburys and McDonalds,the pub and community centre and a few shops.

Like in most neighbourhoods in England,it is hard to find a large number of people out on the streets. Most prefer the privacy of home and the warmth of heaters in the cold. But more importantly,its gun and gang culture dissuades people from venturing out. Clashes between gangs of white men over drugs and turf is not new in Manchester. Stapelton was one such vandal,uneducated and with no respect for anyone,says a resident.

Bidve and his friends were out on the streets around 1.30 am on December 26,walking from their hotel towards the city centre when Stapelton found them. For most residents of Ordsall,Bidve was in the wrong place at the wrong time,a victim of a breakdown of law that they are all too familiar with. School dropouts,usually unemployed,with nothing to lose and an unexplained rage at the system are the all-too-common face of crime in English small towns. Had there been any other person,including a white man in Bidves place,the shooting would have still taken place.

If we say Ordsall is not safe for people from different races,I would have to say my grandkids are not safe as well, says 65-year-old Anna Wright name changed on request,whose daughter has children from a black partner. Ordsall is a dangerous place. If you are a foreign student,why would you risk walking out so late at night? asks Nasrulla Khan Mughal,chief executive for community relations,Manchester City Council. Indian-origin Member of Parliament Keith Vaz,who played a crucial role in helping the Bidve family and raising questions on the murder in the Parliament,would like to see the murder as an isolated incident. We will not know the killers motivation until he comes to trial.

Despite such statements,no one has been able to argue away the possibility that Bidve was not only in the wrong place at the wrong time,but also of the wrong colour. His death is being investigated as a hate crime.

Bidves death was followed shortly by a landmark judgment in a murder case that changed Britain. In 1993,an 18-year-old black student Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death at a bus stop,no questions asked or reasons given. On January 3,after a long campaign that led to fundamental changes in police procedures in cases involving racism,two white men were convicted of the murder. The celebration by newspapers and the police have been tempered by Lawrence8217;s mothers deep and continued scepticism about racism in the country,and Bidves fate.

Since the 1960s and the 70s,when immigration from Asia and Africa to the UK was at its peak,incidents of racism have come down it has become politically incorrect in a largely multicultural society. Wright recalls the 70s when,as a little white girl,she was surprised by the presence of a coloured family in her neighbourhood. There was only one family from Nigeria and we were all curious about them. But now,there are a number of Asian and coloured families living here, she says.

But the undercurrents of racism remain. It is not uncommon for a coloured person to be mocked or called Paki in traditional white neighbourhoods. According to research by the London-based Institute of Race Relations IRR,an average of five lethal attacks with a racial element take place in the UK each year. The victims range from cab drivers,grocery store owners,take-away or restaurant staff to immigrants. It is very difficult to find the motive behind racism. Most of the time people are drunk and the first person they come in contact with,like an Asian cab driver,becomes a victim of the hate crime, says Harmit Athwal,a researcher at IRR.

Mughal,who has seen racism closely when he first arrived as an immigrant of Pakistani origin from Kenya to Manchester in the 1960s,was often the target of Paki-bashing. Since then,the local government,migrant groups and communities have worked together to monitor the problems. But he agrees that certain pockets of Britain remain hostile to migrants even though the second generation has been born and brought up here. We can never get rid of racism but can only work towards minimising it, he says.

The victims of violence have changed over the years. The wave of immigrants in the 1960s was followed by Asians fleeing Uganda in the 70s,and asylum seekers and refugees from across the world. Foreign students,who flock in millions every year,are the new soft targets.

According to the UK Council For International Student Affairs,a total of 4,05,810 students came to the UK for higher education in 2009-10. India ranks second after China among non-European Union countries to send students here. Pune boy Bidve was one of those,studying at the Lancaster University for a Masters in microsystems engineering.

Three months into his stay in England,he and his friends decided to use the Christmas break to travel and go shopping almost all the big brands offer discounts on Boxing Day. It was his first visit outside Lancaster, says father Subhash Bidve. The students stayed at a hotel near Salford,a 10-minute bus ride from the Manchester city center. After visiting the Manchester United Football stadium and the local sights,they went shopping. Since it was late at night,they all decided to walk towards the city center. But who knew such an incident would take place? said his father.

It8217;s not an answer that can be found among Orsdalls contrite tributes.