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LONDON, ENGLAND, December 14, 2004: In its campaign for better understanding and cooperation with various ethnic minority communities Scotland Yard hosted a reception for Britain’s Hindu community members on Monday evening. The designate Commissioner of Police Sir Ian Blair, addressing the members at the New Scotland Yard office in Broadway, said, “I want to clear that there is no hierarchy of communities for us. Many Hindus have recently felt less loved because of all the attention being given to Muslim issues, but over the next five years all this will change and change only in one direction of a more tolerant and diverse London.” Reflecting on the recent reports accusing the Met with institutional racism and discrimination, Sir Ian talked at length with the community’s leading figures who had been brought together by the Hindu Forum of Britain. Ramesh Kallidai of the Forum announced the setting up of a Hindu Youth Diversion Programme in association with the Metropolitan Police Hindu Association. “The community has been extremely concerned over the rising cases of drug and substance abuse. We have decided to set up this joint task force to organize workshops and wean these groups away from such activities.” He added: “We have had ongoing dialogues with the Met and raised issues like the periodic attacks on Hindu temples, especially during festivals like Navratri and Deepavali. The rate of convictions in such cases is not very high 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.” He also requested Scotland Yard to record victims’ religion along with ethnicity so that religiously motivated crimes could be monitored. Sir Ian also pointed out 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.” “Only when London’s police force starts to look as diverse as the city is will such problems be truly dealt with. We want your sons and daughters.”

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