Public Comment

As a former Brit, I am appalled at the colossal waste of money being spent to commemorate Queen Elizabeth’s Jubilee. The queen and her royal predecessors had ruled over India (the land of my heritage) from 1858 to 1947 where they plundered India’s enormous wealth and adopted a “divide and rule” policy between Hindus and Muslims to deflect hostility away from the British.

Following the British departure in 1947, Britain’s former “Jewel in the British Crown” was forced to relinquish a sizable portion of its land mass to accommodate the new Islamic nation of Pakistan.

Millions perished in the enormous migration that ensued.

My father spent most of his adult life campaigning relentlessly for an early exit from India’s British rule. In the “great Loot” it is estimated that $45 trillion was drained from the Indian economy in the form of onerous taxes. When Britain arrived on India’s shores, India’s share of the world economy was 23 percent; when the British it left India’s wealth had been reduced to 4 percent.

The jubilee itself is very telling. There is huge public expenditure for four days, about 28 million pounds spent for a meaningless ritual genuflection to one of the world’s richest institutions, while Britain is in very deep economic trouble, post Brexit. Inflation is running at 10 percent. There is enormous inequality. There are a record numbers of children going hungry, record numbers of working families are forced to use food banks. The soft-hard border issues in Ireland continue to haunt the British, post Brexit.

It seems like the British elite ignored Law of Karma. What goes around comes around!