CHANDIGARH, Punjab—Sikh24 has learnt from internal sources that neither Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) or the SGPC officials have contacted the French Prime Minister’s Office to raise the issue of ban on turbans in France. President of France, François Hollande will be visiting Chandigarh on January 24, he however has no meeting scheduled with the SGPC.
Sikh24’s Amritsar Sahib correspondent reached out to the SGPC’s Additional Secretary, Diljeet Singh Bedi, to question if SGPC had any plans in mind. S. Bedi was clueless about the visit of François Hollande, however he claimed that the SGPC has written a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk about Sikh issues with his French counterpart.
On the condition of anonymity, a senior official of the SGPC ruled out the claims by Diljeet Singh Bedi. He told Sikh24 that so far the SGPC has not made any effort to contact the Indian Prime Minister to raise Sikh issues with the French President. “SGPC has certainly given several statements in various newspapers seeking the Indian PM to take action, however, they have not personally written or contacted Narendra Modi, or the foreign affairs’ office,” Sikh24 was told.
Sikh24 also reached out to Akali Dal MP Prem Singh Chandimajra regarding the visit of the French President, asking him to take up the issue of turban ban. Chandumajra however said that the entire schedule of the French President’s visit to Chandigarh was planned much earlier and they have been unable to book a meeting with him. Chandumajra however said that he will ask the SGPC to move further about the issue.
No body in world says no to
“The President ”
of
“The EMPIRE”
I say no. That is why I am a Sikh and you are not.
Just tell President Obama.
I am sure he will be able to help French Sikhs.
Sikhs prefer to be the instigators of change themselves – the Moghuls and British learned that the hard way and that is why they are considered such a threat today by the Indian Sarkar.
I feel strongly about discrimination against the Dastaar not just in France but India also. How do we deal with the disrespect here when not just the turban but the Sikh wearing it is actively targeted by politicians and police and the law protects those who dishonour and murder Sikhs?
If we feel strongly about Turban in France.
Sikhs should each year on Basakhi should seek help of
1) Courts every year
2) Ask their Law maker’s to modify the Law.
3) Educate the Public
How can the Hinduvta corrupted SGPC and its master Akali Ba-Dal raise the issue of the turban ban in France when they themselves are looking to vandalise Sikh identity in Punjab? They have already disrespected the Sarbat Khalsa, the Panj Pyare and are now questioning the need for Miri-Piri so it is only a matter of time before they start talking about needing a ‘debate to discuss’ the ‘changing times / modern day necessity’ for Sikhs to be baptised into the Khalsa and wear turbans at all. The SGPC and Akali-Ba-Dal are so thoroughly discredited that even if they attempted a hypocritical electioneering sop to Sikh sentiment and try to raise the issue as to why Sikh school children cannot wear their Dastaars in French classrooms (when their Sikh great grandfathers were wearing those same Dastaars marching down the Champs-Élysées in Paris on their way to defend the French Republic from the Kaiser in World War 1), the French President only has to ask why the supposedly Sikh Chief Minister Badal and his High Priest Makkar (King Herod and Caiaphas) have not arrested and imprisoned police officers who have murdered Sikhs on the streets of Punjab? He can ask why do you say we disrespect the Sikhs by banning their turbans when you do as much by rejecting the importance of the Panj Pyare and the Sarbat Khalsa? Badal and Makkar cannot lecture the French PM on giving Sikhs their civil liberties and human rights when they are engaged in exactly the same repression of freedom of expression and religious rights of Sikhs in Punjab. At least the French disrespect of the Sikh identity is borne from sheer blind ignorance – the Hinduvta teat-suckled Badal and Makkar are doing so out of slavish greed and apostasy.