AMRITSAR: Bibi Jagir Kaur President Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has strongly condemned the construction of a replica model of Sri Harmandar Sahib in a park near Punjabi Bagh in Delhi.
While talking to media persons She said that the Sikhs could never tolerate a replica of Sri Harmandar Sahib anywhere in the world.
Bibi Jagir Kaur said, "When this issue came to light, I was in regular contact with the president of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) Manjinder Singh Sirsa since yesterday. Today (on Monday) the DSGMC in support of the Delhi Sangat has immediately removed the replica of Sachkhand Sri Harmandar Sahib." Bibi Jagir Kaur said, "With such actions, some people are deliberately trying to provoke the Sikh sentiments. Such acts cannot be tolerated and should be stopped immediately. Strict action should be taken against the culprits so that no one could play with the Sikh sentiments." Twitter should immediately stop hate-filled tweets against Sikhs:
Bibi Jagir Kaur During the press conference on Monday, Bibi Jagir Kaur said about two months ago on April 7, 2021, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee had written a letter to the Twitter chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Dorsey about the hate-filled tweets against Sikhs in India and abroad. But the SGPC has neither received any response from Twitter nor any action as yet. Bibi Jagir Kaur said, "The threats to repeat the 1984 genocide of Sikhs on social media platforms are common which spoil the atmosphere and has created a lot of resentment in the minds of Sikhs. But no action was ever taken against those who spread hatred against the Sikhs. Such hate propaganda has increased by many folds after the farm agitation was launched against three farm laws passed last year and many Sikh organisations including the SGPC supported the same." She said the support to farmers' agitation irritated certain elements in India and their supporters abroad. "We all know about this certain lobby and how it works in an organised and very vicious way. There has never been any legal action against those indulging in hate-filled propaganda against Sikhs and the utterly communal and anti-Sikh elements multiplied their efforts after the farm agitation", said Bibi Jagir Kaur.
She said that we apprehend the same lobby was behind blocking #Sikh last year on social media platforms and this was an organised attempt to block Sikh voices on social media.
Bibi Jagir Kaur said that now, under the newly created IT rules, Twitter has lost its legal shield in India. She said we can lodge a police complaint against Twitter for allowing hate-filled messages against Sikhs calling for their genocide. But we do not want to single out Twitter as other social media platforms are also not doing anything to remove the hate content against Sikhs. "We understand the value of Freedom of Expression (FoE). We do not want to go after Twitter at times when serious issues of FoE and privacy are involved and the platform is taking a position to continue protecting these. So, we shall not file any complaint against Twitter for now. It is time for Twitter to look at our concerns. -