Unlike the hard-headed Jews who control majority of the global diamonds trade, India's diamond business community thrives more on family links and boasts of emotional links with each other.

It is this soft psyche that got rattled last Wednesday when the authorities caught up with Mr Bharat Shah and arrested him. The image of the world's most successful diamond processing industry was tarnished because of this and other related developments. Little wonder, therefore, the top guns of the industry are busy debating on the need for a ``damage control exercise'', which if not taken could have adverse implications not just within the government circles (government policies have been favourable each year to the diamonds processing industry), but even in the global arena.

After all, India's successful diamond industry processes more than 50 per cent of the world's diamonds and has sufficient reasons for envy from countries vying for a piece of the global diamond trade.

After the day's bandh on Wednesday, what the industry players want to make clear is that Mr Shah's alleged links with some underworld dons, according to another diamond trader, is ``in no way linked with the diamond trade but with the film industry. And therefore, if found guilty on any count he'll have to fend for himself. The law will take its own course and the diamond trade will in no way be able to support him hereafter.''

So, is the diamond industry turning away from one of its most respectable players? Turning away no, but cautious it definitely is. While the industry's top guns have been debating on the need for a ``damage control exercise'', industry players feel ``it's time for us to distance ourselves from Mr Shah,'' said a diamond trader. ``Till proved guilty, this will be too harsh but important a step.''

Was the bandh aimed at putting industry's might and pressure on the concerned authorities to go soft on Mr Shah? Going on defensive, the chairman of the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotional Council, Mr Sanjay A Kothari says: ``Never, it was solidarity and a show of respect for Mr Shah's contribution to the diamond industry. We have never used, and will never use our offices to pressure any quarters. The law will have to take its own course''.

Mr Shah's firm B Vijaykumar & Co (set up jointly with his brother Vijay, an NRI settled in Antwerp (Belgium), is member of the GJEPC since 1972.

However, both Bharat and Vijay Shah are said to have separated a year back, leaving the Indian outfit in the hands of Bharat Shah.

GJEPC boasts of having over 7,000 members who netted around $2.5 billion in foreign exchange from exports of $8.14 billion in 1999-2000. And it is this diamond trading community that has put India atop the global diamond trade to a point where it is considered to be the leader in global diamonds industry. Now is the time for it to protect its position.