Plans for UK’s Queen Consort’s coronation using the Kohinoor diamond are being reconsidered after India’s ruling political party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reportedly warned that the move would evoke “painful memories of the colonial past”
The Telegraph reports that officials at Buckingham Palace are debating whether Queen Consort Camilla should wear the priceless diamond when she and her husband King Charles III are crowned on May 6, 2023, in Westminster Abbey.
The 105-carat Kohinoor, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, is set at the front cross of the crown, which has 2,800 diamonds overall and was last worn by The Queen Mother, wife of King George VI, in 1937.
A BJP spokeswoman told said, “The coronation of Camilla and the use of the crown jewel Kohinoor brings back painful memories of the colonial past,” a BJP spokesperson said.
“Most Indians have very little memory of the oppressive past. Five to six generations of Indians suffered under multiple foreign rules for over five centuries.
“Recent occasions, like Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the coronation of the new Queen Camilla and the use of the Koh-i-Noor do transport a few Indians back to the days of the British Empire in India,” the spokesperson added.
According to reports, the Kohinoor diamond may be removed from the crown during the coronation of the Queen Consort, or the new king and queen may don another crown from the royal collection.
Recently, relations between India and the UK deteriorated, with the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) apparently “on the verge of collapse” as a result of the Indian government’s ire following remarks made by UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman regarding the country’s handling of visa overstayers.
According to government sources cited by “The Times,” Braverman’s “disrespectful” words left politicians in New Delhi “shocked and unhappy.”