CHANDIGARH: The Jathedar (high priest) of Akal Takht (highest temporal seat of Sikhs) Harpreet Singh, on Thursday, criticized the Union government's move to purchase special ballistic helmets for Sikh soldiers in the Army.
Singh said that the government’s move is against the Sikh tenets and an attack on the Sikh identity and requested the Center to reconsider it. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC) has also written a letter to Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh objecting to this move.
A tweet from the official handle of SGPC read, “Withdraw new helmet policy for Sikh soldiers in Indian Army: Harjinder Singh Dhami SGPC President writes to Defence Minister @rajnathsingh @adgpi.”In a video statement issued by Singh, he said, “The Union government is trying that the Sikh soldiers should wear helmets.
The same was tried by the British government even in World War II, which was rejected by the Sikhs. The turban is not just a cloth of five or seven metres, it is a crown which has been placed on our heads by the Gurus and it is a symbol of our identity. Any attempt to put helmet over our symbol of our identity will be seen as an attempt to finish our identity and this will not be tolerated by the community at any cost.”
As per religious norms, the Sikh troops wear turbans and they have continued to do so since World War I. But in counter-insurgency areas and on the Line of Control, Sikh soldiers wore bullet-proof ‘patka’ and helmets.
The Ministry of Defence had recently issued a request for proposal to buy 12,730 helmets for Sikh soldiers under the emergency procurement procedure. Of these 8,911 are large and 3,819 extra large helmets, indigenous in design.
The design requirements specify that the helmet should be able to suit the head size of Sikh troops and should have a centre bulge design and should facilitate unhindered use of communication radio handset, in-service night vision devices, personal spectacles and respirators.