Shiromani Akali Dal president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday welcomed the assurance of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to the Sikh community for allowing them to wear turban at work places and while driving motorbikes in Australia.
“Repeated efforts of SAD that has been pursuing this issue in Australia has started showing positive results,” said Sukhbir.
“The assurance of Australian Prime Minister is a good sign for SAD’s struggle and whole Sikh community for getting their rights of wearing turban in Government offices and other working places on foreign lands. This is a positive move by Australian Government for strengthening relations with the Sikh community that has been contributing in its economic development,” said Sukhbir.
Asking the Centre to put pressure on French Government also for allowing wearing of turban there same like the USA, Canada, and England, Sukhbir said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should impress upon French President to get the ban on wearing turbans in French schools lifted.
He said that it was amasing that such “discriminatory rules and laws should exist in a country like France which has been the torch-bearer of freedom of conscience as well as of liberal and democratic ethos to large parts of world”.
Sukhbir said that the “turban is not just a symbol of cultural faith for the Sikhs but is an inalienable part of the Sikh identity as ordained by our gurus”.
Deputy Chief Minister also said that the Sikhs all over the world were deeply aggrieved over the way the Government of the Republic of France has been dealing with the issue. He asked the Prime Minster to convey the “warm feelings of cordiality in the hearts of all Sikhs for the people of France, who we strongly believe understand and respect the anguish of the Sikh over the issue”.