NEW DELHI: Grim-faced Chinese guards protecting the Olympic torch have attracted further criticism ahead of the relay’s arrival in India, where bitter memories of war with its neighbour remain fresh.
Phalanxes of Chinese security personnel are accompanying the flame on its round-the-world journey to shield it from pro-Tibetan and other protesters.
One Indian general who fought Chinese troops in the 1962 war attacked New Delhi for allowing Beijing to guard the torch, while some Indian figures asked to carry the flame have pulled out citing their own concerns.
“The relay may have been marred by Tibetan protests in France and England but I completely disagree that the Chinese should be doing anything with its security on Indian territory,” Lieutenant General Afsir Karim said.
“There is something terribly wrong in how India is handling this situation and it’s outrageous that a foreign force will be the custodian of the torch when we have more than ample experience in crowd management.”
An advance team of Chinese commandos would provide “proximate security” for the flame when it reaches New Delhi from Islamabad on April 17, The Press Trust of Indian quoted security officials as saying.
India has already curtailed the route from nine kilometres (six miles) to three kilometres because of fears of rowdy protests.
“The Olympic Holy Flame Protection Unit which has personnel from Beijing’s Special Police Force will form the inner security ring for the torch,” a home ministry official, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
Among those invited to join the New Delhi relay is Rahul Gandhi, a scion of the charismatic Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty and touted as a future premier.
Gandhi was yet to say whether he would take part but an aide told AFP he had been advised to stay away. “It’s a political minefield and it will provide strong ammunition to the opposition,” he said.
India’s first female police officer, Kiran Bedi, declined an invitation to carry the torch, saying she could not “run in a cage,” while the country’s former football captain Bhaichung Bhutia has also refused, saying he wanted to show solidarity with Tibetans.
However, Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan said he would take part, noting the Olympics was a sporting event and not political.
India is home to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who fled to the country after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule, and at least 100,000 of his supporters.
On Thursday, the senior leadership of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in the Indian hill station of Dharamshala urged protesters to be “non-violent and peaceful.”
We “would once again like to strongly appeal to all quarters of the Tibetan Diaspora to desist from any kind of violent methods, particularly to respect the law of host country,” the senior leadership including the Dalai Lama said in a statement.
Chinese security came in for stiff criticism in Paris and in London for the way they handled its passage through those cities.
Olympic gold medallist Sebastian Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Olympics organising committee, was overheard slamming the Chinese security as “thugs”, according to British media.
The US leg of the Olympic torch relay ended with a closing ceremony at San Francisco International Airport after protesters blocked part of the route.
Organisers in other cities where the flame will pass, such as Canberra and Jakarta, have already said they are amending security arrangements to avoid similar chaos to London and Paris.
