Charles, Prince of Wales, the heir apparent to the British throne will arrive in India on Wednesday on a two-day trip. He will visit the Gurdwara to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. Prince Charles will also discuss climate change and meet President Ram Nath Kovind.
“I am delighted to welcome His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to India once again on his 10th official visit. His many visits to India and his enduring interest in promoting our common interests is another example of the living bridge between the United Kingdom and India,” said British High Commissioner to India Dominic Asquith.
“He will visit a Sikh temple to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak and mark the contribution of the Sikh community in the UK,” he added.
The visit to Sikh temple on Guru Nanak’s 550th birthday seems like an attempt to cover up the inability to apologize for Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
The British Royal family missed a golden chance to apologize for the heinous crime in the name of protecting the British Empire. On his visit, Prince Charles should have kneeled in Jallianwala Bagh for the massacre carried out Colonel Dyer.
Col Dyer, known as “The Butcher of Amritsar”, said that the firing was a requisite measure and that it was “not to disperse the meeting but to punish the Indians for disobedience”.
Indians have been long demanding an official apology from the British Royal family and the British Government for the crime against humanity carried out by the British government in 1919.
April 2019 marked 100th anniversary of the cruel act and this could be the perfect time for Prince Charles to apologize.
It was also a missed chance to kneel down in front of the people of Bengal and publicly apologize for Winston Churchill’s deliberate killing of 30 Lakh (government estimate) people during Bengal famine in 1943. And the return of Kohinoor as a ‘symbol’ of returning of all the wealth looted from India. British could not pay the looted amount because for this they would have to ‘sell their country in London Stock Exchange’. So, returning of Kohinoor as a symbol will be enough. A memorial should be erected In British parliament on ‘loot and plunder’ carried out in the British Empire for upcoming generations to remember what their ancestors have done to foreign countries.
Previously, a British parliamentary panel report has highlighted the failure of the United Kingdom to keep pace with the global rush to engage with a rising India. The parliamentary panel, stated in its report, that Britain’s recent relationship with India has been one of the missed opportunities. The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons chaired by MP Tom Tugendhat has enumerated a list of drawbacks of the successive British governments which have, “failed to give this relationship the attention it deserves”.
Another key issue over which the Tugendhat led parliamentary panel has severely criticised the British government is the lack of apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. In a strongly-worded passage, the report has censured the then Theresa May government for failing to apologise for the massacre. The May government came under pressure to make an official apology for the heart-wrenching massacre carried out by the officials of the British India government at that time. However, the May government resisted all such demands made in India as well as the United Kingdom. All she did was to express ‘deep regret’ for the massacre.
