New Delhi: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has slammed UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham for his remarks that his government will consider apologising for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, saying the omission of colonialism from the proposed apology is inexplicable and inexcusable.
Tharoor’s remarks came after Burnham said his government will consider apologising for the first time for its role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade as it seeks to strengthen relations with nations in Africa and the Caribbean.
Writing in ‘The Guardian’ on Saturday, Burnham said Britain needed to acknowledge its “complicated history” in order to protect the Commonwealth, an association of 56 independent nations that grew out of the British Empire. Burnham travels to Antigua and Barbuda this week for a meeting of Commonwealth leaders.
“For years, those members of the Commonwealth affected by the slave trade have asked for an honest conversation about the legacies of slavery,” Burnham was quoted as saying by media reports. “By sticking our heads in the sand, we have damaged the ability of the Commonwealth to function.”
Reacting to the British prime minister’s remarks, Tharoor said he has long argued that whatever reparations are offered by Britain, no credible figure is payable and no payable figure is credible.
“But moral atonement for the ravages of colonialism is indispensable. I am glad to learn that Prime Minister Burnham is prepared to offer a formal apology on behalf of the British state for the horrors of slavery. But the omission of colonialism from his apology is inexplicable and inexcusable,” the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said in a post on X on Saturday.
“It remains deeply shameful that Britain has never said a simple ‘sorry’ for the loot, pillage, death and destruction perpetrated during the colonial era on millions of innocent victims of British imperialism,” he said.
Tharoor is also the author of the book ‘Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India’ which is a scathing examination of British colonialism and reveals how India’s wealth was systematically plundered.
