Anguished over the frequent recurrence of incidents of religious and racial outrage against members of the Sikh community, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Friday urged the Centre to activate all diplomatic missions across the world to spread awareness about Sikh religion and its message of peace and universal love.
Badal’s urgent request to the Central Government 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 (kachcha).
The Chief Minister drew the attention of the Union Government to removal of turban of a Sikh teenager by the US authorities at New Jersey.
Taking a strong exception to the recurrence of such unfortunate incidents across the globe, Badal has taken up this issue with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to impress upon the American authorities to take stern action against the erring officials or officers who were playing with the religious sentiments of Punjabi diaspora settled over there in general and the Sikhs in particular.
Badal asked the Centre to resolve this issue at the earliest by using all the diplomatic and political channels at the highest level.
He 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 (SGPC) and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) 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.