How did David Cameron fare with the local media on this week’s trip to India? The third day of his trip attracted the most headlines, when he visited Amritsar. If Mr Cameron, described as ‘Mr Camerooon’ by one enthusiastic TV journalist, and reportedly introduced as James Cameron by another, didn’t have a high profile amongst Indians at the start of his trip, this one act ensured otherwise.
After he’d talked trade with business leaders, met a Bollywood star and performed the obligatory cricket photo opp, he headed to Amritsar, to Jallianwala Bagh, the scene of a massacre which is etched in India’s history.
It was here, in 1919, that hundreds of Indians were shot dead by British troops, under orders from General Dyer. David Cameron’s decision to become the first British Prime Minister to visit the site, and his subsequent description of what happened as ‘a deeply shameful event in British history’ was enough to exercise the Indian media.
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Should he have gone? Should he have gone further and apologised for what happened? Should the Kohi-noor diamonds now be returned?
A picture of him kneeling in front of the memorial was carried on the front page of most of the newspapers, ‘The apology that wasn’t,’ was the headline in the Times of India.
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