It took two Parliamentarians from Kerala, Congress’s Shashi Tharoor and CPI(M)’s M.B. Rajesh, to demand in the Lok Sabha in February this year that Parliament must pass a resolution demanding unequivocal apology from the British for Jallianwala Bagh.
British Prime Minister Teresa May on Wednesday described the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in 1919 as a “shameful scar” on British Indian history, but stopped short of a formal apology.
“We deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused,” she said.
On February 13 this year, the last day of the 16th Lok Sabha, the House debated Jallianwala Bagh Memorial Trust (Amendment) Bill. Mr. Rajesh demanded that the House adopt a unanimous resolution seeking apology from British for the massacre.
His Kerala compatriot Mr. Tharoor too called for one.
Calling Jallianwala Bagh tragedy a “cold blooded imposition of colonial will,” Mr. Tharoor said, “This was a great national tragedy and the fact is, it reflected a number of betrayals... the betrayal of the support given by India to the British during the First World War, the betrayal of the promises made of Dominion Status to our country, the betrayal also of the moral compact that binds those who rule and those who are ruled.”
