The Olympic torch continued to make news on Wednesday with India’s first woman IPS officer Kiran Bedi pulling out, saying the “overbearing” and “overdone” security had turned the relay into a “painful hypocrisy”.

Bedi is the second high-profile personality to pull out of the race after Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia, but unlike the football star she did not cite the Tibetan cause as her reason. Instead, she concentrated her ire against the “hysterical” security arrangements being made in Delhi for the April 17 relay, which she said would “encage” the torch.

“Overdone security has taken away the spirit of the Olympic torch. And I do not want to be a part of this feeling of insecurity and fear. It reduces it to mere tokenism and a hypocritical formality — not exhilaration as it stands for,” Bedi told The Indian Express.

Asked whether she would prefer the scrapping of the torch relay in the event of it having no chance of getting a free run, she said, “It is as good as scrapped. This is a painful hypocrisy being performed, of which I have bowed out.”

The Olympic torch relay has generated huge controversy worldwide, attracting extensive protests in London and Paris from sympathisers of Tibetan cause and activists who accuse China of human rights abuse.

In India, which hosts a significant number of Tibetan exiles, the fear of widespread protests has forced the Government to restrict the relay to a three-km route on the Rajpath, a route which can be conveniently sanitised by the security forces.

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