CHANDIGARH: The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on Tuesday took up the issue of the shooting of a Sikh at Kent near Seattle in US recently with Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and US Ambassador to India Richard Verma and urged them to expedite steps to ensure stopping of racial attacks and discrimination against the Sikhs in United States.
In separate letters written to Sushma Swaraj and US Ambassador Richard Verma, the General Secretary of the DSGMC Manjinder Singh Sirsa expressed serious concern over the attacks on Sikhs in the US and said that it is very shameful and shocking that killings of Sikhs in the US over the past decade is continuing unabated.
Sirsa said that though Swaraj had been taking up issues keeping in mind feelings of the Sikh community, the incidence of discrimination against Sikhs by causing hurt, injury and sometimes killing is being repeated. He said that the recent attack on one Deep Rai was the latest in the series.
He further said that no matter where a Sikh resides his roots are embedded in Punjab, India.
Sirsa said that DSGMC which is a statutory body established by the Act of Parliament, 1971 of Government of India represents the Sikh community and thus has responsibility bestowed upon by Sikh sangat for taking up these issues whenever any kind of racial, or insulting act occurs against the identity of a Sikh.
Stressing upon the establishment of a separate cell by the ministry to take up these issues, Sirsa suggested that the cell can have members of Government of India and representatives of Sikh people from the elected bodies, namely DSGMC and SGPC. He also said that along with this a proper campaign should be launched to ensure that such incidents don't occur in the future.
Sirsa also reminded the External Affairs Minister and US Ambassador of the incidents that occurred in the recent past, including a firing incident that occurred in 2012 at Gurdwara Sahib Wisconsin where an accused namely Wade Michael Page shot six Sikhs and wounded four others; discrimination against Waris Ahluwalia, a Sikh American actor who was barred from boarding Aero Mexico flight from Mexico after he refused to remove his turban and an incident of a Indo-Canadian Sikh comedian Jasmeet Singh who was forced to remove his turban at US Airport and later barred from boarding a flight to Mexico.
He urged both leaders to take urgent steps in the matter as the community was worried keeping in view the changed circumstances in the US.