Sri Guru Singh Sabha Mum­bai writes to In­dian Union Min­is­ter for Hu­man Re­source De­vel­op­ment seek­ing im­me­di­ate with­drawal of  un­law­ful or­ders of In­dian In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy and other higher ed­u­ca­tional in­sti­tu­tions ban­ning the Kara as a metal­lic ob­ject not to be worn by stu­dents at ex­am­i­na­tions.

Upset at the in­creas­ing num­ber of in­ci­dents of ha­rass­ment of Sikh stu­dents ap­pear­ing for higher ed­u­ca­tion ex­ams in tech­ni­cal and med­ical fields on ab­solutely no grounds what­so­ever, the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Mum­bai has writ­ten to Prakash Javadekar -In­dian Union Min­is­ter of Hu­man Re­source De­vel­op­ment urg­ing him to is­sue clear in­struc­tions to the IITs and med­ical in­sti­tu­tions to re­frain from up­set­ting Sikh stu­dents right at the door of their ex­am­i­na­tion halls.

While Sikhs in the United States of Amer­ica are run­ning a suc­cess­ful #WeAr­e­Sikhs cam­paign to cre­ate aware­ness about who the Sikhs are, why do they wear the tur­ban, why do they wear the Kara and other ar­ti­cles of faith, and what is the im­por­tance to them of their faith sym­bols, we never thought that we may have to do the same in In­dia too. In an ab­solutely sur­pris­ing de­vel­op­ment, though not shock­ing, tak­ing into ac­count the up­surge of hege­monis­tic fer­vour in the coun­try, Sikh stu­dents -boys and girls are be­ing asked to re­move the Kara -the steel bracelet worn around the right-hand wrist and in some cases the Kir­pan -the sym­bolic sword, in ex­am­i­na­tions at the var­i­ous In­dian In­sti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy cen­tres and other med­ical in­sti­tu­tions.

“Wear­ing the Kara and the Kir­pan is not a con­ces­sion to Sikh stu­dents but a mat­ter of right -en­joined in the Sikh re­li­gion, at­tained by the Sikhs af­ter supreme sac­ri­fice and ex­pressly sanc­tioned by the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia.” –Man­mo­han Singh, Gen­eral Sec­re­tary, Singh Sabha, Mum­bai

The let­ter to the In­dian Union Min­is­ter ex­press­ing deep con­cern at these in­ci­dents, states that, “ We write to you to ex­press deep con­cern at grow­ing num­ber of in­ci­dents of re­li­gious dis­crim­i­na­tion of prac­tis­ing and other Sikh stu­dents par­tak­ing ed­u­ca­tion and ap­pear­ing for ex­ams in IITs and other higher ed­u­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions. Sud­denly, there is a spurt of such episodes wherein the harm­less Kara -one of the com­pul­sory 5 Ks of a prac­tis­ing Sikh and worn even by oth­ers, has be­come a pro­hib­ited item to ex­am­in­ers of IITs and CBSE ex­ams, be­cause os­ten­si­bly it falls un­der the cat­e­gory of metal ob­jects. In many cases, young stu­dents, right be­fore en­ter­ing the ex­am­i­na­tion hall have been asked to re­move their Kir­pans-the other of the five com­pul­sory sym­bols of the Sikh faith. We wish to say this in a forth­right man­ner that this is just not ac­cept­able. This has grossly hurt the re­li­gious sen­ti­ments of the Sikh peo­ple.”

“We fail to un­der­stand as to what harm can a steel bracelet around the wrist of a Sikh boy or girl can do dur­ing ex­am­i­na­tions? Who has given the IITs ex­am­in­ers and other se­nior staff to go against the let­ter and spirit of the con­sti­tu­tion, which clearly guar­an­tees un­der Ar­ti­cle 15 -pro­hi­bi­tion of dis­crim­i­na­tion on grounds of re­li­gion, race, caste, sex or place of birth?” asks Man­mo­han Singh, the Gen­eral Sec­re­tary of the Sri Guru Singh Sabha Mum­bai, in the let­ter, ques­tion­ing the au­thor­ity of the staff do­ing such ir­ra­tional ac­tions.

The fol­low­ing in­ci­dents have come to light and I am sure that there are more which have not been re­ported.

1. As re­cently as April 2017, a par­ent in Mum­bai, Mr. Naresh Chandi­ra­mani has com­plained that his twin sons were asked to re­move their kara in three sep­a­rate ex­ams in­clud­ing JEE (Main) and JEE (Ad­vanced) and while speak­ing to the Times of In­dia Mum­bai, has threat­ened the IIT au­thor­i­ties to go to court in case there is no clear-cut in­struc­tion to the con­trary for the forth­com­ing JEE (Ad­vanced) ex­ams in May 2017.
2. In No­vem­ber 2015, a stu­dent, Am­bala res­i­dent prac­tis­ing Am­rit­d­hari Sikh -Har­man­preet Singh while ap­pear­ing for the writ­ten test for se­lec­tion to posts of ju­nior en­gi­neers at the Ma­haraja Ag­gar­sain Col­lege in Ya­mu­nana­gar was forced to re­move his kir­pan by the lady teacher there.
3. In July 2015, three Am­rit­d­hari stu­dents -Gur­preet Kaur, Dharm­bir Singh and Har­sim­rat Kaur had to fight their way into the Pre-med­ical exam cen­tre in Bhatinda as they were asked to re­move their Kara and Kir­pan.
4. In April 2015, an­other Am­rit­d­hari Sikh -Jaswinder Singh was asked to re­move his “kir­pan” and “kara” at the Joint En­trance Ex­am­i­na­tion (Main) -2017 at the Ma­havir Pub­lic School in Jaipur, Ra­jasthan.
   As these in­ci­dents cause de­lay and ab­solutely un­nec­es­sary anx­i­ety to stu­dents prior to pro­fes­sional ex­ams which re­quire thor­ough con­cen­tra­tion and peace of mind, Man­mo­han Singh has ap­pealed to the Min­is­ter to di­rect the IITs, CBSE and other ed­u­ca­tional au­thor­i­ties to al­low sym­bols of faith of all re­li­gions and to stop dis­crim­i­na­tion to any stu­dent -ir­re­spec­tive of gen­der, re­li­gion and ex­am­i­na­tion.

Sikhs are up­set and would not like rep­e­ti­tion of the afore­said events, oth­er­wise like in France and the US, we may have to reach out and con­duct aware­ness ses­sions re­gard­ing the im­por­tance of sym­bols of faith for the IIT, CBSE and other higher ed­u­ca­tion in­sti­tu­tions in In­dia.

In a forth­right man­ner, Man­mo­han Singh of the Singh Sabha Mum­bai has stated that “this is not a con­ces­sion to Sikh stu­dents but a mat­ter of right -en­joined in the re­li­gion, at­tained by the Sikhs af­ter supreme sac­ri­fice and ex­pressly sanc­tioned by the Con­sti­tu­tion of In­dia.”

It’s time to stand up.