ROURKELA, Orissa, India—Following the ban of the Kirpan, one of the mandatory articles of faith, Sikh students faced a similar dilemma at Rourkela College in Orissa. School authorities barred a student named Harwinder Singh from writing his university examination due to the reason that he was wearing a kirpan. Just this past month, the Uttar Pradesh Education board had imposed a ban on amritdhari Sikh students from wearing their kirpan in schools.
The Sikh student had to wait three hours, until he was finally admitted into the examination. This led to embarrassment to the student and the staff who expressed total ignorance about Sikh values and beliefs. It has been learned that despite Harwinder Singh’s attempt to explain the reason behind wearing a Kirpan, the school staff seemed uninterested in his explanation.
Upon finding out about the incident, local members of the Sikh community also reached there and tried to reason with the authorities, but at first it did not result in a positive outcome. Finally as more Sikhs and non-Sikhs arrived at the college in support of Harwinder Singh, the principal, Pradeep Kumar Jena, intervened and allowed Harwinder Singh to take part in the examination.
It should be noted that some non-Sikh friends of Harwinder Singh had also refused to take the examination as they dubbed the school administrators as hypocrites. This was due to the fact that Indian law permits wearing of the kirpan—the school principal then had to submit a written apology.
