HVK Archives: Gujral asks Queen to drop plan to visit Amritsar
Gujral asks Queen to drop plan to visit Amritsar - The Observer
A K Dhar
()
18 August 1997
Title: Gujral asks Queen to drop plan to visit Amritsar
Author: A K Dhar
Publication: The Observer
Date: August 18, 1997
Prime Minister I K Gujral has warned Britain's Queen Elizabeth to drop her
plans to visit Amritsar, scene of the bloody massacre at the Jallianwala
Bagh by British forces in 1919 - for which many Indians hope she will
apologise, Sunday Observer reported.
"We have suggested as a Government to the British that it would be much
better if she doesn't visit Amritsar, particularly when such issues have
been raised," Prime Minister Gujral told Sunday Observer in an interview
published on Sunday.
He said, "It is a goodwill visit and we would not like to add anything
historically that would cause bitterness. I think India has the legacy of
Gandhi that makes us forget bitterness of the past."
The paper said that Indian Prime Minister's pronouncements had startled the
foreign office and now British and Indian officials were working on a
compromise under which the Queen would visit the Golden Temple as planned
during her state visit in October, but, then would also visit the scene of
the massacre, the Jallianwala Bagh, nearby.
The paper said, "no apology would be expected from the British monarch, but
her presence at the site would be widely seen as a gesture of reconciliation."
The Queen and her consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, are scheduled to make a
three-day state visit to India in late October after the Common wealth
Summit in Scotland.
The Queen and Prince Phillip are undertaking the visit in connection with
the golden jubilee celebrations of India's independence,
The paper said that Gujral had shown "indifference" towards the return of
Kohinoor diamond, once the jewel in the crown of Indian kings and now part
of British crown jewels.
Gujral told the paper "India's wealth does not depend on the Kohinoor. We
have several Kohinoors in our treasury - not the stones, but the wealth as
such - so I hardly think about such things."
According to recent reports, the jewel was obtained by trickery by the
British forces from last Sikh ruler Maharaja Dulep Singh.
Recently some groups in India had been demanding the return of the diamond,
the paper said, adding, Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal had also
demanded the return of the jewel.
Commenting on the British foreign policy towards Asian countries, Prime
Minister Gujral told the paper that British influence and drive towards the
region was warning and its foreign policy was being defined by Washington.
He said "the British ceased to be a major power in the middle forties. It
was an exhausted nation that lost a great deal, in war. The Americans were
a rising power and Churchill and others, who followed him, thought it
better to piggyback."
Yet, Gujral hoped Indo-British relations would not he tainted by US tutelage.
"By and large our relations are good. Sometimes shadows are cast by
indiscreet speeches. I do hope that in the interest of building better
psychological relations, Whitehall policy makers will be slightly more
careful and respectful of our sentiments."
Reflecting over the last 50 years, the Prime Minister drew a distinction
between the colonial experiences of Africa and India, saying "the type of
tyranny the colonial leaders inflicted on Africa was far more tormenting,
sometimes naked slavery, sometimes not so naked, but slavery all the time."
"You see the Indian colonial era had one difference in that foreigners did
not come here to. colonise, they came here to rule, but Africa they
colonised and that is why even in post-colonial era, they are having
economic difficulties," Gujral said.
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