LONGOWAL, AUG 20: Even as Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal emphasised today that the British Queen should visit Amritsar, Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta maintained that the Centre had asked the Queen to skip the town ``for her own sake''.``We have asked her not to go there for fear of possible reactions from the people there. For her own sake, we would prefer that the Queen does not go there as she may be put to some embarrassment,'' Gupta told media persons in Thiruvananthapuram.He said, ``We do not want our guest to be embarrassed. It is quite likely that someone may voice some protest or shout at her if she goes to Jallianwala Bagh, where hundreds were massacred by the British in 1919.''However, addressing a mammoth crowd which had gathered here to pay obeisance to former president of the Shiromani Akali Dal Sant Harchand Singh Longowal on his 12th death anniversary, Badal said he did not attach much importance to the demand for an apology from the British head of state for the massacre.Later, Badal told media persons that he would ask Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to take the necessary steps for including Amritsar in the Queen's itinerary. He said his Government would be happy to receive the British Monarch. Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who was in town for the death anniversary function of Longowal, reacted in the same vein. He said, ``Even if she visits Jallianwala Bagh without tendering a formal apology it would amount to the same.''
