Kolkata: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Monday termed the recent incident involving a Sikh man, whose turban was allegedly pulled by the police, as “inhuman”, and assured members of the community that necessary action would be taken in this regard.
Hitting out out at the West Bengal Police after the turban of a man identified as Balwinder Singh fell off during clash at a rally organised by the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) on October 8, Dhankhar said, “Kabiguru felt the pain of Jallianawala Bagh massacre thousands of kilometers away and renounced his title. Time to vindicate Rabindranath Tagore so that we hold our ‘head high’ and not ‘in shame’. It’s time to be in rectification mode.”
“Concerned at the adversarial stance @WBPolice @HomeBengal with all out effort to garner and manipulate support for inhuman treatment meted out #BalvinderSingh. Time @MamataOfficial for healing touch rather than be in justification mode. Law allows capping of such wrongs,” he said in a tweet.
The governor’s reaction came a day after a delegation led by Maninder Singh Sirsa, president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, met him at Kolkata Raj Bhawan and submitted a representation regarding disgracing a Sikh’s ‘Dastar’ (headgear).
The delegation expressed its grievances before the governor and called the incident a grave insult to the entire Sikh community and demanded justice for Balwinder Singh.
The arrest of Singh for carrying a gun during BJP’s protest rally in Kolkata has sparked outrage after the saffron brigade accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of hurting religious sentiments, after the Howrah district police allegedly removed his ‘turban’.
Singh is a personal security guard of BJP leader Priyanshu Pandey and is known to Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh, police said.
A resident of Bhatinda, Singh was held by the police for carrying a loaded pistol during the march called by BJYM to Nabanna, the state secretariat, on October 8.
Police officials said it was unusual for the man to carry arms during a protest meeting. They said the license of the pistol was issued in 2009 by the district magistrate of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir and Singh’s licence permit is limited to Rajouri and that it was illegal to use in Bengal.
Amid outrage, the state Home Department has already issued a statement which reads, “Our Sikh brothers and sisters live here in West Bengal in perfect peace and harmony, in happiness and tranquillity, with respect from all of us for their faith and practices. A recent incident when one isolated individual got caught with. One illegally carried firearm during agitation was not authorized and it is now being twisted out of context, being distorted, and being given communal colors in fractious and partisan interest. One political party is giving communal colour to the subject in narrow partisan interest in a manner that Bengal does not believe in. Policing was done as per law, but highest respect for the Sikh panth and ways from GOWB is affirmed.”
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