AMRITSAR: Sukhbir Badal, the President of Shirimani Akali Dal has strongly condemned the the Punjab Sports Department or excluding a gursikh player from skating competition durng a district level games event being held at Patran in Patiala district or not wearing helmet.
In his tweet Badal said that chief minister and sports minister Punjab owe an apology from the young sikh boy and sikh community for this anti sikh act.
Meanwhile Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee President Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami has strongly condemned the expulsion of a Gursikh athlete from the competition for not wearing a helmet during the skating competition at the Government Model Senior Secondary School in Patiala and demanded action against the guilty officials.
Advocate Dhami said that such a move that hurts religious sentiments in the Sikh majority state of Punjab is a direct challenge to the Sikh identity.
He said that wearing a helmet has no place in the Sikh tradition, if a Sikh player wants to participate in a sports competition without a helmet, then there should not be such a ban on him.
SGPC Chief said that due to such a move with a Sikh player in the Sikh majority province of Punjab, immediate action should be taken against the officials of the sports department and the organizers of the competition while seeking an immediate apology from the Chief Minister of Punjab Mr. Bhagwant Mann, Sports Minister Gurmeet Singh.
It should also be ensured that while canceling this sports competition, this competition should be repeated by including the concerned player, so that the Sikh player can get justice, he said.
He said that in this regard, the Shiromani Committee is sending a delegation to meet with the family of Gursikh sportsman Kaka Riajpratap Singh, who lives in the village of Sub-division Pataran , , and make a full report, in which the member of the inner committee. Jarnail Singh Kartarpur, Manager of Gurdwara Sri Dukhniwaran Sahib Patiala and Pracharak Singh are included.