In a comic strip published on 2 July, leading Indian English daily Hindustan Times shows the image of a Sikh army person lighting a cigarette in a clear attempt to denigrate the Sikh community.

48hours have passed but Hindustan Times has not seen the writing on the wall. It has not withdrawn the highly denigrating comic strip published in the 2 July Sunday Delhi edition of the Brunch magazine of the Hindustan Times. The strip is still viewable on the HT website. It is a clear-cut intentional effort to tarnish the Sikh image. A Sikh army man, with the surname Singh, called Maharaja Sikander Singh, with a Sikh turban is shown smoking.

Hindustan Times, a leading Indian English daily with multiple editions, in a comic strip has shown a Sikh military personnel light a cigarette. This is blasphemy -a deliberate, conscious and serious attempt to defame Sikhs in general and Sikhs serving in the Indian army in particular. The whole world knows that smoking is a taboo for the Sikhs and one of the four Kurhaits -strictly prohibited things for all Sikhs.

Now, someone will call it right to freedom of expression, someone else will call it a silly mischief, someone may call it oversight and someone may call it poetic license or someone else would call it a mistake by the comic strip illustrator. No, no, no. This is all nonsense. This is a deliberate design.

“Someone will call it right to freedom of expression, someone else will call it mischief, someone may call it oversight and another person may call it poetic license or someone else would call it a mistake by the comic strip illustrator. No, no, no. This is all nonsense.”

Notices have been sent by two lawyers Manjit Singh Butalia and Jagmohan Singh to the Hindustan Times.  Jagmohan Singh has filed the notice on behalf of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee. Both lawyers have sent legal notice to the printers and publishers of the newspaper.

In his note circulated through social media, Manjit Singh Butalia has said that he has briefed the DSGMC and the Prime Minister of India, Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad and Jathedar Akal Takht Sahib through twitter and phone.

In the Comic strip the main character is shown to be a Sikh with beard and moustaches and he is shown to be a Sikh Maharaja Sikandar Singh. In one of the subsequent illustrations, the Sikh Maharaja Sikandar Singh is shown smoking a cigarette.

Among other things, Manjit Singh Butalia has said, “everybody knows that in Sikh Religion use of tobacco is strictly prohibited just as in Islam the meat of pig is prohibited and in Hindu Religion meat of cow is prohibited.”

It further says that, “In order to dramatize your comic strip you have shown a Sikh smoking. You have done this so deliberately for commercial gain to increase the readership of your newspaper and have hurt the feelings of Sikh Community. You have committed jointly and severally a religious sin which is unpardonable.”

“The World Sikh News takes a strong notice of this and appeals to the Sikh world in general, Sikhs in Delhi in particular, where the criminal act has been done to wake up and catch the bull by its horns. It is testing times for the Hindustan Times, the government of Delhi, the government of India and the Sikh community.”

Among other things, the veteran lawyer has appealed to Sikhs to boycott Hindustan Times and to hold demonstrations against the paper and to burn copies of the paper. The lawyer has sought an unconditional apology on the first page of the newspaper, failing which he would file a criminal case.

In the complaint filed by the DSGMC, the lawyer Jagmohan Singh has said that “the Supreme Court of India has clarified that the right to freedom of expression is not an absolute right but comes with the responsibility of not hurting the religious sentiments of responsible citizens…. by hurting Sikh sentiments they have committed officers under Section 153 A and 295.”

I wonder whether the newspaper is on its own or is it some secret cell of the BJP government now wanting to take on the Sikhs after they are hounding the Muslims in the country?  Nevertheless, dangerous times ahead.

Speaking to the World Sikh News, Gurdeep Singh Kundan, the Secretary of the Global Sikh Council has strongly denounced the publication for tarnishing the Sikh image and questioned the secular credentials of the country under the present dispensation of Narendra Modi. He demanded that “if there is some semblance of secularism and democracy left in the country, the Prime Minister’s office must initiate proceedings against the defaulting newspaper. Nothing else will satisfy the Sikh people across the globe who are deeply perturbed.”

The World Sikh News takes a strong notice of this and appeals to the Sikh world in general, Sikhs in Delhi in particular, where the criminal act has been done to wake up and catch the bull by its horns. It is testing times for the Hindustan Times, the Press Council of India, the government of Delhi, the National Commission for Minorities, the government of India and the Sikh community.

Even if Hindustan Times apologises and withdraws the impugned comic strip, they should be made to pay such exemplary damages and the artist, printer and publisher sent to prison so that no one even in their wildest liberties would dare to do such a thing. Otherwise we will have an Indian version of the French “Charlie Hedbo” here in Delhi.