The frequent recurrence of incidents of religious and racial outrage against members of the peaceful and law abiding Sikh community, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged the Union Government to activise all diplomatic missions across the world to spread awareness about Sikh religion and its message of peace and universal love.The Chief Minister’s urgent request to the Government of India for effective and prompt intervention comes in the wake of fresh incidents of disrespect shown to symbols of Sikh identity like turban, hair, beard, bracelet and breeches (Kachch). The Chief Minister drew the attention of the Union Government to removal of turban of a Sikh teenager by the U.S. authorities at New Jersey.
Taking a strong exception to the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents across the globe, the Chief Minister has taken up this issue with the Ministry of Home Affairs, GoI to impress upon the American authorities to take stern action against the erring officials/officers who were playing with the religious sentiments of the Punjabi diaspora settled over there in general and the Sikhs in particular. Mr. Badal asked the Union government to resolve this issue at the earliest by using all the diplomatic and political channels at the highest level.
The Chief Minister said that the whole of Punjab was highly sensitive to this grave problem being faced by the Sikhs settled abroad and even the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee have been constantly stressing this issue to rein these racial elements, who were bent upon to harass the law abiding Sikh citizens just to tarnish their clean and civilized image. The Chief Minister demanded severe punishment for these criminal elements so that it should act as deterrent against repetition of such inhuman crimes.