NEW DELHI: Britain should apologise for the killing of unarmed Indiancivilians in the city of Amritsar, India’s defence minister told AFP onTuesday days before its 100th anniversary — and for the 1943 Bengal faminetoo.
The April 13, 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, in which British troopsopened fire on thousands of unarmed protesters, remains an enduring scar ofBritish colonial rule in India.
Colonial-era records show about 400 people died when soldiers opened fireon men, women and children in an enclosed area, but Indian figures put thetoll at closer to 1,000.
Former British prime minister David Cameron described it as “deeplyshameful” in a visit to the northern Indian city in 2013 but stopped shortof an apology.
In 1997, Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath at the site but her gaffe-pronehusband Prince Philip stole the headlines by reportedly saying that Indianestimates for the death count were “vastly exaggerated”.
Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s defence minister, told AFP ahead of the 100thanniversary on Saturday that now was the time for Britain to say sorry.
“Without a doubt, yes,” Sitharaman said. “There couldn’t have been abitterer tragedy during the freedom movement in India…. That was an inhumanact.”
Arguments that apologising would leave London open to legal claims “couldbe no legitimate reason to say I shall not regret this. That’s the baggageyou have to carry with you.”
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Sitharaman also said that Britain should also say sorry for a lesser-knownbut much bigger tragedy — the Bengal famine in eastern India during WorldWar II.
As many as three million people died in 1943 after Japan capturedneighbouring Burma — a major source of rice imports — and British colonialrulers in India stockpiled food for soldiers and war workers.
“Three million people, they starved to death… Britain owes an apology forthat,” she said.
“That was a man-made diaster. Grains of Bengal, from all parts of India,were all diverted for the war, depleting the people’s basic needs.”
Sitharaman added that the chaos over Brexit was “really sad”.
“It is a situation in which no country would ever want to be in, because itis an unenviable position. You have thrown yourself into an area aboutwhich you have no clue.” – APP/AFP
