Indian police beat striking Honda workers

DELHI - India has reacted with horror after it emerged that more than 700 striking workers had been injured, many of them severely, after being beaten by police during clashes on Monday.

Even as the recriminations began, there was more violence yesterday when relatives of the injured attacked police outside the hospital where they were being treated.

Television pictures of Monday's violence showed police rounding up hundreds of striking workers at a Honda factory and forcing them to sit or lie on the ground, then beating them with lathis, long bamboo clubs, while the workers pleaded for mercy.

There was chaos in India's parliament yesterday as several opposition members walked out in protest, and members from the government's coalition partners demanded action against the police officers involved.

The violence took place in Gurgaon, a wealthy satellite town of Delhi. The town is supposed to be a symbol of the new India, replete with Western-style shopping malls -- something you don't find in Delhi proper, let alone most other Indian cities.

It all started after around 1,000 workers at the local Honda motorbike and scooter factory took to the streets to protest the sacking of four of their colleagues for insubordination a month ago.

It is not entirely clear how the violence began, but it appears it may have been some of the workers who started it, by throwing stones at police and setting fire to a police jeep.

Footage from earlier in the day showed protestors armed with sticks beating the police, and one officer pleading with protestors as they hit him.

"There was violence from both sides," said the Chief Minister of Haryana state, Bhupinder Singh Hooda. "Hundreds, including many policemen, were injured."

But whatever started the violence, is appears that the police went far over the top in their reaction.

The Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, spoke yesterday of his "anguish" at what had happened and called for an independent investigation.

"This is spine chilling. I could not have imagined that an incident like this could have happened in independent India," said Nitish Kumar, an opposition leader.

There were new clashes yesterday outside the hospital where the injured were being treated. Live television pictures showed women chasing police officers and beating them with canes.

Men armed with stones gathered around the hospital. Many of them were believed to be relatives of protestors who are still missing after Monday's violence.

"I want to see my brother," said one man called Veermati. "I saw him on TV yesterday, he was one of the leaders. We don't know what happened to him after that. I am furious. Nobody's telling me where my brother is."

India is one of the so-called "new tiger economies", with the second-fastest growing economy in the world after China. But there have been growing signs of frustration from India's masses of impoverished labourers that their lifestyles have changed little, while the relatively small middle class is reaping all the benefits of the economic growth.

India's labour laws offer little job protection, and with the country's massive population providing readily available cheap labour, job security is poor for the working classes.

Indian analysts expressed fears that this week's violence could defer future foreign investors.

- INDEPENDENT