Centenary year of Jallianwala Massacre: Kalia writes to President of India

Jalandhar April 11, 2019: Former State President BJP Punjab and former Minister Punjab Manoranjan Kalia has demanded, through a letter, from the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind to award a civil honor posthumously, as His Excellency deem fit, British Journalist Benjamin Guy Horniman (1873-1948) through his descendents, in the Centenary year of Jallianwala Massacre. Because Benjamin Guy Horniman as an editor of the paper "The Bombay Chronicle" narrated the truth of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre by defying brutal British Censorship in 1919. He had to undergo a sentence of two years' rigorous imprisonment. The paper "The Bombay Chronicle" had to suspend its publication and Horniman was deported to Britain. Horniman successfully smuggled photographs of the massacre & its aftermath and broke stories in the Daily Herald in Britain to tell the truth of the massacre to the British people. He implored British public opinion to question the justification given by General Reginald Dyer. In this book 'Amritsar and Our Duty to India,' which was published in 1920, he called out the 'Dyerarchy' of General Dyer in Punjab, a word that he used for the atrocities committed under General Dyer. Comparing the massacre to Congo atrocities and those perpetrated by Germany in France and Belgium, he called it an 'indelible blot on British rule in India. Through his reports and writings, Horniman indicated towards the responsibility and duty of the British people and demanded for investigation of officials in power and of the clean chit given to the Dyer. Horniman wrote," after the revelations of the Hunter Committee, Great Britain cannot, if she is to maintain her honor before the world, remain quiescent.....she will have to see whether the intention to terrorize the people of Punjab was deliberate and prearranged." Horniman has been called a friend of India and is an example for journalism in India. Nothing can be more a befitting reply to those who supported Brigadier General Regineld Edward Harry Dyer's action of Jallianwala Massacre than bestowing a civil honor posthumously as His Excellency may deem fit to Benjamin Guy Horniman through his descendants. “In the Centenary year of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre we may further commemorate Horniman by installing Horniman's portrait in the photo gallery of Jallianwala Bagh”, said Kalia.