Taking advantage of the ongoing visit of the French president to India, the Sikhs of France have written a letter to India’s prime minister, external affairs minister, the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee and parliamentarians from Punjab to raise the issue of their turban with him.
The letter, written by Conseil Représentatif Des Sikhs De France (Representative Council of Sikhs of France) based in Paris, states that a due to a regulation that bars the display of religious symbols in public places, France’s Sikhs are required to remove their dastaar or turban for getting their photographs clicked for official documents as well as matching their faces with these documents when they are produced for ID checks.
Ranjit G. Singh, Public Affairs Director of Conseil Représentatif Des Sikhs De France has emphatically mentioned in his letter that French Sikhs feel humiliated whenever they are mandated to remove their turbans in public places when their identity is required to be matched with their ID documents such as passports, driving licences, health cards and more such documents.
The letter paints a sorry picture of France’s religious freedom as even Sikh children are not allowed to wear turbans in schools and adult Sikhs lose job opportunities if they wear a turban.
This letter has been addressed to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and its copies have been sent to Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, the umbrella body of Sikhs representation, Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, the Indian Embassy in Paris, the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and Members of Parliament from Punjab including Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Dharamvir Gandhi, Bhagwant Mann and Harinder Singh Khalsa. Ms Badal has responded to this by writing to PM Modi to urge the President of France Emmanuel Macron during his four-day visit to India to help the cause of the Sikhs in his country.
In another letter written to the Sikh Panth, which roughly translates to the global Sikh community, the Council mentioned that despite the success they got with the United Nations Human Rights Committee in 2012 which supported the demand of French Sikhs to not remove their turban for identity documents and checks, the ground reality has not changed in France. It highlights their “struggle for identity”, adding that this issue was raised earlier during the visit of former French president Francoise Hollande to India in 2016 but nothing came out of it. It also underscores the historical ties between Sikh kings and France. “Sikhs and France have a great shared history, friendship between Maharaja Ranjit Singh and King Louis Philippe 1er, to the French love in the province of Kapurthala. It is important to remember these strong historical connections that strengthened the French-Sikh friendship. This same friendship will occur during the Great Wars in France. The Dastaar was not an issue to defend the Freedom in France, today a duty of memory is required.” (sic)
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