British PM should apologise to India
BENGALURU: British MP of Indian origin, Virendra Sharma, has said the British Prime Minister should apologise at the House of Commons for the British rule in India.
Sharma, MP from Ealing Southall (which has a large population of Indians) since 2007, arrived here on Thursday morning to attend the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas.
Sharma, who has seen Shashi Tharoor’s video in which he argues for Britain to pay reparations to her colonies, said he too had advocated the same. “This would be the most courteous way to accept that ‘yes, something went wrong’.”
The MP said he had raised this issue even when former British PM David Cameron visited Jallianwala Bagh in February 2013. At that time, Cameron had termed the incident a “deeply shameful event in British history”, but had stopped short of a proper apology.
The Labour Party MP said Indians in England were still under a lot of stress because of demonetisation. There is yet no clearance from the Indian government to the Indian banks there as to whether they can accept old notes, he said. He said his agenda at Pravasi Bhartiya Divas is to listen to what the Indian leadership would say, to discuss how they look at the diaspora and to know how best they could contribute to development of the country.