Very Ot: Thunder In Paradise???

[Marika]

Honda Workers, Police Clash Again in India

Women and men armed with truncheons and stones attacked police Tuesday in an affluent New Delhi suburb where violent clashes between protesting Honda workers and police a day earlier reportedly injured 700 people.

The renewed violence came as India's Parliament erupted in chaos, with some opposition members walking out and others angrily demanding that the government take action against police officers who sparked Monday's clash.

Live television footage Tuesday showed furious women chasing police officers and pounding them with canes near a government hospital in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon.

Men with stones swarmed the hospital, where many of the injured were being treated, after patients complained of getting no help. There was no immediate word on casualties or arrests.

Many of the protesters were relatives of those still missing after Monday's violence, which erupted when about 1,000 angry Honda workers protested the dismissal of four colleagues in Gurgaon.

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

The demonstrators on Monday hurled stones at police and set fire to a police jeep, and officers waded into the crowd while swinging batons, Haryana state Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said.

Hundreds of protesters were rounded up and forced to sit or lie on the ground in Gurgaon. Television footage showed police clubbing them with bamboo truncheons as workers pleaded and screamed. Busloads were taken away to police stations. It was unclear how the fighting started. Earlier video footage also showed workers attacking outnumbered police with wooden sticks, and one officer pleading with protesters as they hit him repeatedly.

"There was violence from both sides," Hooda told reporters. "Hundreds, including many policemen, were injured."

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed "anguish" over the incident and called for an independent investigation.

On Tuesday, members of the opposition National Democratic Alliance walked out of the Lok Sabha, the powerful lower house of Parliament, in protest after Home Minister Shivraj Patil said only 92 workers and 35 police officers were injured in Monday's brawl.

"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.

Singh's governing Congress Party, which relies heavily on support from communist parties closely associated with India's labor unions, faced allies who expressed anger at Monday's riot and blamed police.

"I want the police officers dismissed," said Gurudas Dasgupta, a senior lawmaker from the Communist Party of India-Marxist

"Even animals are not treated like this," said Devendra Prasad Yadav, leader of ruling coalition member Rashtriya Janata Dal group.

The workers were employed by Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India _ a subsidiary of Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Co. A Honda official said four workers were fired and 15 others were temporarily suspended on charges of insubordination a month ago.

[Marika]

At http://www.cnn.com/video if you search their video files under World news, you can find a video that shows the rioting. It will leave you in shock when you watch it. It's titled, "Who started the violence in New Delhi?"

Oddly, CNN and AP describe two different reasons for the riots. CNN says it's a wage dispute that caused the riots while AP says it was because 4 workers were fired and 15 suspended for "insubordination".

You'll have to sit through a commercial before the Video runs but it's ok, it's either a Cadillac or Hummer commercial...