The UK government on Tuesday flagged \u201cfinancial implications\u201d as one of the factors it had to consider while reflecting upon demands for a formal apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to mark its centenary this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UK Foreign Office minister Mark Field told a debate on \n\u201cJallianwala Bagh massacre\u201d at Westminster Hall in the House of Commons \ncomplex that while it was important to draw a line under the past over \nthe \u201cshameful episode\u201d in history, repeatedly issuing apologies for \nevents related to the British Raj came with their own problems.\u201cI have \nslightly orthodox views on Britain\u2019s colonial past. I feel little \nreluctant to make apologies for things that have happened in the past,\u201d \nthe minister said.\u201cI feel we perhaps debase the currency of apologies if\n we are seen to make them for many, many events.\u201dHowever, while \nreiterating the UK government\u2019s \u201cdeepest regret\u201d over the massacre in \nAmritsar on April 13, 1919, Field stressed that the issue of \nappropriately marking the sombre 100th anniversary remains a \u201cwork in \nprogress\u201d and an active debate was taking place amongst ministers and \nsenior officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cImportantly, our modern relationship with \nIndia is focussed on the future, on pooling our strengths However, I \nalso recognise that the relationship is framed in part by the past,\u201d \nField said, adding that he had been \u201ccompelled\u201d by the latest debate to \ntake a message back to Downing Street that perhaps a little more is \nrequired than the \u201cdeep regret\u201d already expressed by the UK government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\n debate, tabled by Conservative Party MP Bob Blackman, included a series\n of cross-party British MPs speaking on the \u201cenduring and very deep \nfeelings and emotions\u201d the \u201cmonstrous\u201d event continues to raise across \nthe world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Veteran Indian-origin Labour MP Virendra Sharma called\n for a formal apology to be made by British Prime Minister Theresa May, \nwith others echoing the demand and also raising the prospect of a \nphysical memorial to be constructed in memory of those who lost their \nlives.Many of the MPs included an account of General Dyer firing on a \nBaisakhi gathering at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on April 13, 1919, \nwithout warning and blocking the main exit of the park with his soldiers\n and armoured vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blackman, in wrapping up the outcomes of \nthe latest UK parliamentary intervention over the massacre, said the key\n messages that came out of the debate was that the incident must form \npart of the school curriculum in the UK and that a formal apology for \nthe incident remains the \u201cright thing to do\u201d\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The UK government on Tuesday flagged \u201cfinancial implications\u201d as one of the factors it had to consider while reflecting upon demands for a formal apology for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to mark its centenary this week. UK Foreign Office minister Mark Field told a debate on \u201cJallianwala Bagh massacre\u201d at Westminster Hall in the House […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":58808,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58809,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58807\/revisions\/58809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}