Jallianwala: Assembly seeks UK apology

CHANDIGARH: In the run-up to centenary year of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the Punjab assembly on Wednesday sought a formal apology from the British government for the bloodbath in Amritsar on April 13, 1919. The House unanimously passed a resolution for mounting pressure on the central government to pursue this issue with the UK government.
State parliamentary affairs minister Brahm Mohindra moved the resolution to pay a befitting tribute to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre martyrs during the centenary year of the massacre. Mohindra said it was a dastardly act perpetrated upon the innocent people who had converged there to protest against the Rowlatt Act of the imperial rulers. “Even the British government of the time had realised the gravity of the irresponsible act, as is evident in the premature superannuation of General Reginald Dyer from the British Army,” said the Mohindra.

However, during a discussion on the issue, Congress as well as AAP legislators cornered SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia stating that he should also tender an apology on the issue on behalf of his late grandfather Sundar Singh Majithia. Congress MLA Kuljit Singh Nagra and AAP legislator Kultar Singh Sandhwan said that Akali’s leader’s grandfather had presented a Siropa to General Dyer and had invited him for dinner. As Bikram cited his grandfather’s contribution to the society stating there was no reason to apologise, jails minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said since Akali leader’s grandfather was close to Britishers, he was also made president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). When the Akali leader asked as to why the Congress should not apologise for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the jails minister told him that Bikram’s family was also part of the Congress in 1984, to which Bikram replied that after the attack on Harmandar Sahib, his family had left the Congress.