World Sikh Or­gan­i­sa­tion Canada re­jects the mod­i­fied “Ital­ian Kir­pan” pro­posal and urges Jathedar Akal Takht to set aside the case in toto, of­fer­ing le­gal and lo­gis­ti­cal as­sis­tance to Sikh Ital­ians on the Kir­pan and con­nected re­li­gious is­sues.

Inter­ven­ing in the case of the mod­i­fied Kir­pan pre­sented by a Sikh ap­par­ently in col­lab­o­ra­tion with a gov­ern­ment de­part­ment of the Gov­ern­ment of Italy, the World Sikh Or­gan­i­sa­tion has re­jected it out­right and urged Singh Sahib Gi­ani Gur­bachan Singh Jathedar, Sri Akal Takhat Sahib to re­ject this pro­posal as it is fraught with se­ri­ous con­se­quences to the wear­ing and car­ry­ing of Kir­pans not only in Italy but also in Eu­rope and in fact the en­tire world.

This move was made af­ter the 17 May ban on the Kir­pan by the Ital­ian Supreme Court on a pe­ti­tion by one Jatin­der Singh who was told to pay a fine of Rs. 2000 for wear­ing the Kir­pan.

In a mis­sive to the Jathedar Akal Takht by Mukhbir Singh, the pres­i­dent of WSO says, that “the re­cent pre­sen­ta­tion by an Ital­ian del­e­ga­tion led by Sukhdev Singh Kang of a “spe­cially de­signed” kir­pan for ap­proval by Sri Akal Takht Sahib is sim­ply not ac­cept­able. Ac­cep­tance of this model will have se­vere and neg­a­tive reper­cus­sions for Sikhs across the world.”

As men­tioned in a sec­tion of the me­dia in Italy and in In­dia, “The kir­pan pre­sented for ap­proval is re­port­edly made of a flex­i­ble ma­te­r­ial and ap­pears to have a rounded tip and no edge. Each kir­pan is to be pre­pared in Italy, marked with a se­r­ial num­ber, is­sued to Sikhs by the gov­ern­ment, and will be ac­com­pa­nied by a “li­cense”.”

“This type of in­ter­fer­ence in the Sikhs’ right to wear the kir­pan is un­prece­dented and un­ac­cept­able. No gov­ern­ment has the right to “is­sue” a kir­pan to Gur­sikhs and fur­ther­more, any gov­ern­ment al­ter­ation or in­ter­fer­ence with the shape or at­trib­utes of a kir­pan is in­tol­er­a­ble.”

WSO takes right­ful um­brage at this and has said that “This type of in­ter­fer­ence in the Sikhs’ right to wear the kir­pan is un­prece­dented and un­ac­cept­able. No gov­ern­ment has the right to “is­sue” a kir­pan to Gur­sikhs and fur­ther­more, any gov­ern­ment al­ter­ation or in­ter­fer­ence with the shape or at­trib­utes of a kir­pan is in­tol­er­a­ble.”  

The Ital­ian gov­ern­men­t’s at­tempt to de­sign and is­sue kir­pans to Sikhs on the pre­text that the kir­pan is too much like a “weapon” is a legally flawed ar­gu­ment. Work­ers who have a “good rea­son” to have tools like knives or blades are per­mit­ted to carry them by the au­thor­i­ties, how­ever, the Ital­ian court has ruled that Sikhs have not es­tab­lished a good rea­son to wear the kir­pan. This is a fun­da­men­tally flawed and in­cor­rect con­clu­sion that must be legally chal­lenged. Ac­cept­ing this de­ci­sion and al­low­ing the Ital­ian gov­ern­ment to in­ter­fere in the Sikhs’ right to wear the kir­pan is the wrong ap­proach and can­not be per­mit­ted.

The right to wear and carry the Kir­pan has been chal­lenged over the last cen­tury in var­i­ous parts of the world, in­clud­ing In­dia, UK, US, Canada, Aus­tralia, Italy and Den­mark. Only Italy and Den­mark have re­jected the Sikh de­mand and are not ac­com­moda­tive. In all other coun­tries Sikhs en­joy full rights to prac­tise their faith.

“The right to wear and carry the Kir­pan has been chal­lenged over the last cen­tury in var­i­ous parts of the world, in­clud­ing In­dia, UK, US, Canada, Aus­tralia, Italy and Den­mark. Only Italy and Den­mark have re­jected the Sikh de­mand and are not ac­com­moda­tive. In all other coun­tries Sikhs en­joy full rights to prac­tise their faith.”

How­ever, as stated by the World Sikh Or­gan­i­sa­tion in its let­ter to the Jathedar Akal Takht, “In Canada, Sikhs have worked to­wards the ac­com­mo­da­tion of the kir­pan in pub­lic spaces such as hos­pi­tals, schools, court­rooms and hos­pi­tals. While agree­ments have in­cluded lim­its on size or re­quired that the kir­pan is worn un­der­neath the clothes, no at­tempt to al­ter or reg­u­late the shape or at­trib­utes of the kir­pan has ever been ac­cepted by Sikhs. Though the process has taken years, the kir­pan is now widely ac­cepted and ac­com­mo­dated in Canada.”

The WSO has of­fered to as­sist Ital­ian Sikhs in re­open­ing the le­gal case for the ac­com­mo­da­tion of the Kir­pan and while do­ing so has cat­e­gor­i­cally stated to Jathedar Sahib that, “Cana­dian Sikhs re­ject the Ital­ian pro­posal to de­sign and dis­trib­ute the kir­pan.”

It may be noted that as per me­dia re­ports Harbinder Singh Dhali­wal, a promi­nent Sikh fig­ure in Italy and ed­i­tor of The Pun­jab Ex­press has also ex­pressed ap­pre­hen­sions about the new pro­posal. He has, in fact, said that in view of the non-recog­ni­tion of the Sikh re­li­gion by the Ital­ian au­thor­i­ties, such ac­com­mo­da­tion seems un­ten­able.”

No­tably, the SGPC, DS­GMC and many other Sikh or­gan­i­sa­tions have also ex­pressed their de­sire to in­ter­vene and help re­verse the de­ci­sion of the Supreme Court of Italy.