With the Kohinoor diamond and other priceless artefacts taken by the British apparently weighing heavily on his mind, a former member of Parliament has made a strong plea to the United Kingdom to return all the “colonial loot” to set an example to the youth in that country.
“I believe that you, as a leader, can prevail upon the government of the UK to return all the ‘colonial loot’ to the respective countries, including Asia, Africa and India, and this will set an example to the youth in your country that ‘loot’ is not a matter of pride anymore, but a crime,” Mr Sanjay Dalmia, a former MP of the Samajwadi Party, said.
In a letter to Ms Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Dalmia recalled that she was hailed at a lawyers’ meet during the first term of her husband’s premiership when she had said that there cannot be two sets of laws — one for the whites and one for the rest of the people — and the wrong should be undone.
This, he said, was in the context of the recent riots in Britain where there was largescale looting and arson on the streets.
“I believe that this could have happened due to the fact that display of ‘colonial loot’ at the Tower of London and other places, which visitors and local people have a chance to see,” he said, adding that it had a “very bad impact” on the British youth.
Kohinoor, the 105-carat gemstone, which was mined in Andhra Pradesh and is set in the coronation crown of the British royals, is now kept at the Tower of London, a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in the British capital.