DAYS before the 106th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, a Conservative MP urged the British government to acknowledge its failings and formally apologise to the people of India.
Bob Blackman, the MP for Harrow East, spoke in the Commons last Thursday (27), recalling the deadly massacre in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, when people had gathered to celebrate the Baisakhi festival, and called for an apology.
“On April 13, 1919, families gathered very peacefully in the Jallianwala Bagh to enjoy the sun, to enjoy a day out with their families. General Dyer, on behalf of the British Army, marched his troops in and ordered his troops to fire on those innocent people until they ran out of ammunition,” Blackman said.
“At the end of that massacre, 1,500 people were dead and 1,200 injured. Eventually, General Dyer was disgraced for that stain on the British Empire. In 2019, the then prime minister, Theresa May, recognised this was a stain on British colonial rule in India.
“Could we have a statement in government time, as the anniversary will fall on April 13 this year, when we are in recess? Could we have a statement from the government admitting what went wrong and formally giving an apology to the people of India?” Blackman said.
Lucy Powell, the Leader of the House, thanked Blackman for “raising this important matter of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which, as he says, is one of the most notorious and shameful episodes in the history of British colonialism, particularly in India.”
“I will absolutely make sure that Foreign Office ministers have heard his question today, and I will suggest that perhaps they bring forward a statement in advance of the anniversary,” Powell said.
In 2019, May said the 1919 tragedy was “a shameful scar on British Indian history” and added, “we deeply regret what happened and the suffering caused.”
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