HVK Archives: Sikhs resent Gujral's stance on Queen visit
Sikhs resent Gujral's stance on Queen visit - The Indian Express
Express News Service
()
19 August 1997
Title: Sikhs resent Gujral's stance on Queen visit
Author: Express News Service
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 19, 1997
Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral has been caught on the wrong foot again.
His reported suggestion to British Queen Elizabeth 11 to skip Amritsar
during her forthcoming visit to India is threatening to snowball into a
major controversy.
The Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) and Akali MPs today put
out statements saying that the British Monarch would be extended a most
"profuse and warm welcome" on her visit, leaving the Prime Minister
embarrassed.
The Akali MPs decided to urge Gujral to change his stance, so that the
historic visit materialises. Akali leader Prem Singh Chandumajra said
Gujral was scared that once the Queen apologises, the Government would have
to apologise for Operation Bluestar and the anti-Sikh riots of 1984.
He also expressed surprise at Gujral's remarks over Kohinoor diamond and
asserted that it was not a mere stone but a symbol of pride for the Sikhs,
and must be brought back to the country.
Echoing similar feelings, SGPC president Gurcharan Singh Tohra flayed the
demand that the Queen apologise for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, saying
it was being made by vested interests who wanted to prevent her from paying
obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
Ale SGPC chief said British Monarchs and Premiers had visited India many a
time, but no one had ever demanded an apology.
Reacting in the same vein, community think-tank, the Institute of Sikh
Studies, has termed Gujral's remarks as "unwarranted and ill-advised under
the influence of those who want to isolate the Sikh community from the world".
Institute secretary Kharak Singh said the Sikhs were enthusiastically
waiting to welcome the Queen and said any attempt to thwart the visit would
not only hurt the Queen but also Sikhs all over the world.
A section of Britain's Sikh community also reacted angrily to Gujral's
statement.
Sikh community leaders and priests said in London that the Queen will have
their support if she visits the Golden Temple.
They see the Prime Minister's remarks as an affront to Sikhs.
The Government, meanwhile, seems to have reservations about the Queen's
visit, even though it is not openly calling for an apology.
An official spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said today that
"in order to ensure that important relations with a very friendly country
is insulated from controversy, the Government has drawn the attention of
the British Government to sentiments being expressed in the proposed visit
to Amritsar".
The message in the carefully-worded statement seems to say that a visit to
the Jallianwala Bagh memorial on India's 50th anniversary of Independence
from the British would be incomplete without an apology to the martyrs of
1919.
But another view within the Government and voiced by Pranab Mukherjee,
former Congress External Affairs Minister, is that a guest must be treated
honourably and with dignity.
"This country has an old tradition of honouring its guest and we must not
forget that," Mukherjee said, adding, "the Queen has visited India twice
before in 1956 and in 1983, why hasn't the demand for an apology for
Jallianwala come before?"
A Government source added: "If it comes from their own large-heartedness,
then that's alright. But you can't demand an apology at the point of a gun."
The controversy had its repercussions in London also, with the British
Government demanding "urgent clarifications" from India about the Prime
Minister's remarks.
The British Foreign Office said it is still talking to Indian officials
land that a decision has not beer reached yet.
However, there was no immediate comment from Buckingham Palace, which had
sent a high-level team to India to finalise details of the visit, as the
Queen with her entire family is currently vacationing at Balmoral Castle in
Scotland.
The British media, however, commented that Gujral's remarks had "thrown the
visit into disarray".
According to the media, British officials yesterday made frantic calls to
New Delhi to clarify the position.
"There is no question of an apology, nor do Indian authorities expect one,"
Guardian quoted Foreign Ministry sources as saying.
Some Britishers feel that the other alternative could be that the Queen
visit the Golden Temple, and then go to the massacre site as a gesture of
reconciliation.
A strong public opinion is budding up among Britishers of Indian origin as
well as among a powerful section of the British media, who are calling for
an outright British apology for the massacre.
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