NEW DELHI/NEW YORK (TIP): Delhi-based Sikh leader Manjit Singh GK has called on Sikh leaders and influencers in Canada, the UK, and the US to break their silence over the humiliation of Sikh deportees in the United States, who were forcibly stripped of their turbans before being boarded onto a military plane.

GK, a veteran Akali, questioned the selective activism of Sikh political figures in the diaspora, reminding them that Sikh rights are not bound by geography. “Where are the Sikh MPs, ministers, and activists who never hesitate to speak on Sikh issues in India? Does their voice falter when Sikh identity is trampled in America?” GK asked.

GK, who has in the past headed the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC), questioned, “Where is Gurpatwant Pannun? Has he gone silent because this indignity happened under Trump’s administration — the same Trump whose inauguration he attended?”

Drawing a parallel with the collective Sikh response to France’s turban ban, GK reminded the community that the fight for adorning the turban has always been a global fight.

“When France banned the turban in schools and official documents, Sikhs stood together, across borders, without bothering for visas before raising their voice. Why the hesitation now? Why the silence when Sikh deportees were dehumanized on American soil?” he said. GK also criticized the Indian government for failing to send its own aircraft to bring back the deportees, calling it a national embarrassment.

But he was equally critical of Sikh-American activists and the dozen-plus Sikh MPs in Canada and 11 in the UK, questioning why not one of them has spoken out against this injustice.

“If Sikh leaders in the West remain mute when our own people are shamed, they set a dangerous precedent — that Sikh identity can be violated without consequence. The turban is not just cloth; it is our identity. And if we fail to defend it now, we betray our own principles,” GK warned. He urged diaspora Sikhs to demand accountability, emphasizing that their silence at this moment would be deafening.
(Source: TNS)