British parliament to debate massacre at Jallianwala Bagh

LONDON: British Parliament’s upper house will debate the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar on February 19 amid renewed calls for Britain’s apology for the bloodbath in the run-up to its centenary.

Hundreds of people were killed when British troops under BrigGen Reginald Dyer’s command fired on a crowd of unarmed Indians at the Jallianwala Bagh on April 13, 1919.

Indian-origin British parliamentarians, Lord Meghnad Desai and Lord Raj Loomba, have initiated the debate in the House of Lords, which had condoned Dyer’s action.

The demands for an apology over the massacre and Britain’s plans to commemorate the centenary would also be discussed during the debate, according to the Jallianwala Bagh Centenary Commemoration Committee (JBCCC) formed for the purpose.

Desai and Loomba wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May and requested an official apology on behalf of the JBCCC, according to the committee.

Sardar Balbir Singh Kakar, heads the JBCCC. Author Kishwar Desai, former Indian ambassador to the US, Navtej Sarna, British lawmaker Virendra Sharma, and Rajinder Singh Chadha are other members of the panel.

Desai said on Thursday the JBCCC is supporting an exhibition on the massacre at Amritsar’s Partition Museum along with the Arts And Cultural Heritage Trust. The same exhibition will be held in Manchester, London, and Birmingham in April with Manchester Museum’s help.

“There are also requests to send the exhibitions to various cities in India and around Punjab,’’ said Desai.

The exhibition themed Punjab under Siege — the Jallianwala Bagh Centenary (1919-2019) — will depict the impact of the massacre. Prime Minister David Cameron visited Amritsar’s Jallianwala Bagh memorial in 2013 and described it as a “deeply shameful event”.

He did not apologise, saying: “I think the right thing is to acknowledge what happened, to recall what happened, to show respect and understanding for what happened.”