Anarchy in the UK!

Recently I travelled to London for Hero MotoCorp's big brand unveiling, and landing on Heathrow on August 8, one really had little idea what turmoil the former capital of the empire was suffering. The night before, riots had begun in North London and were now spreading like wildfire across the suburbs. But, Hero, which had flown in 1300 people, including dealers, vendors, employees and about 30 journalists, really did not believe things were going to collapse into madness the night we landed.

However, staying almost on Piccadilly Circus, next to London's West End theatre district and Regent Street, the main high-street shopping area, it really felt like everything was normal, albeit a bit quiet for a Monday night. But I had, as usual, decided to skip the big journalist dinner at our hotel, and went to meet a friend in north London. But moments after I met my friend, he told me that we have to leave the area as the rioters were closing in. We ended up going to The Gilbert Scott, one of the fanciest new restaurants in town, built at the new hotel at the St.Pancras international railway station, but even here we were one of few patrons. The city and its residents looked and felt frightened.

Coming from India, where I guess we all get rather desensitised to violence and human tragedy, this was a bit bizarre. And what was even more bizarre was the constant hand-wringing about what to do. There was actually a debate on whether to use water-cannons or not. I could not but help think, that in a case like anywhere back home, the police action would have been far more brutal. Police-firing is painfully common in India, and the government almost never takes action against policemen who have killed protesters or innocent civilians. But in London, this was human rights to the other extreme, an extreme that I possibly found a bit hard to comprehend.

The fact was that the police in London had killed a drug dealer; now it is not clear whether the dealer fired at the police, but if you are an armed drug dealer, you should be prepared to die. Now, this 'police brutality' led to charges of racism against blacks, and riots began. But soon, youth from across the racial divide were taking cover under this to loot shops and commit arson and target small shop-owners many of whom are from South Asia. What happened in many parts of London and elsewhere in Britain was not racial riots but out and out theft.

It could be that there is a lot of angst against the rich across the world in light of the recent downturn. But in England it felt that a lot of the anger was just greed. And this in a country that actually gives people housing and money even if they do not work under a massive welfare state. A welfare state, which it is coming quite clear to many, that the British state can not afford, and it is likely that there will be more trouble in London in the future.

The next day, the Hero event passed without a snag. Shah Rukh Khan shook a leg on stage, Ranbir Kapoor launched a bike and Anushka Sharma did her whole Bollywood jig inside the cavernous O2 Arena. It seemed a bit bizarre to do this all in London where one might have done the same thing in Delhi, but I guess many people (me included) love getting their passports stamped.

However, while the show carried on, the city still appeared to be shell-shocked. That evening, I met my cousin for a few beers and most bars where he stays were also shut; earlier shops at Regent Street downed their shutters by 5.30-6 PM in the evening instead of 8 PM. The hysteria spread by the Indian media reached absurd levels when my parents called me enquiring if everything was OK. "It was fine," I assured them. I had not seen a rioter or experienced any problems, other than the prices in some roadside coffee shops being nothing short of daylight robbery.
 
The United Kingdom has huge structural problems though, with immigration, youth unemployment and street violence. I realise many Indians still love travelling to London for its immense cultural attractions. I did go to the brilliant Natural History Museum and the Imperial War Museum and London is still one of the two most cosmopolitan cities in the world along with New York. The government there needs to solve these problems. A small Hero function with 1300 people is no big deal, but when hundreds of thousands of people descend on the city for the Olympics next year, it better have the problem under control.