The Hindustan Times UK Edition
Nabanita Sircar
London, December 20

At a dinner hosted by the Metropolitan Police for British Hindus in London recently, Ramesh Kallidai, Secretary General of the Hindu Forum of Britain, made a radical suggestion. He requested the Police to monitor religious hate crime by recording the faith of the victim in addition to the present practise of recording the ethnicity of the victim.

"Religiously aggravated hate crime is as important to tackle as race hate crime. However, we cannot deal with religious crime as effectively as race crime because there is no data collected about the religion of the victim. I request the Police to please collect this information as part of their investigation process so that we have the data necessary for effectively monitoring religious hate crime."

The Met Police Commissioner-designate, Sir Ian Blair, addressing the community said: "I want to clear that there is no hierarchy of communities for us. Many Hindus have recently felt less loved but over the next five years all this will change - and change only in one direction of a more tolerant and diverse London."

Kallidai while appreciating the increased levels of communication, cooperation and friendship between the Hindu community and the Metropolitan Police in the last 10 months, also announced the setting up of the Hindu Youth Diversion Programme, set up by the Hindu Forum of Britain in partnership with the Metropolitan Police Hindu Association.

"The community has been extremely concerned over the rising cases of drug and substance abuse," he announced. "We have decided to set up this joint task force to organise workshops with career counsellor, psychological counsellors and Hindu chaplains to wean addicts away from such activities."

The Security Secretary of the Hindu Forum, Arjan Vekaria, added: "We have had ongoing dialogues with the Met and raised issues such as the periodic attacks on Hindu temples, especially during the Navratri and Diwali festivals. The rate of convictions in such cases is very low and we plan to launch a 'Get the Number' campaign to urge people to get a crime reference number so that action can be taken."

Sir Ian stressed the fact that the Met force was the largest employer of ethnic minorities in London, numbering 6,000, and assured the community leaders of an integrated approach in future. "To make the Met a truly transparent and modern institution, we need representatives from all communities."