Take up turban issue with Nicolas Sarkozy: Sukhbir Singh Badal

Punjab deputy chief minister and Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal today sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention in getting the ban on wearing turbans by Sikhs in French schools lifted.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, he urged him to take up the issue with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the get the ban lifted.

"The turban is not just a symbol of cultural faith for the Sikhs but is an inalienable part of the Sikh identity as ordained by our Gurus," the Junior Badal said.

"It is amazing such discriminatory rules and laws exist in a country which has been the torch-bearer of the freedom of conscience as well as of liberal and democratic ethos to large parts of world," letter said.

"These laws give the misleading impression that the French government is either unaware of or callous towards not only the sacred tenets and practices of the Sikh faith but also of the proud liberal legacy and history of their own great nation."

Asking the prime minister to impress upon the visiting dignitary the need to distinguish between ordinary rituals of a religion and inalienable practices of any religion, Badal requested him to get the ban on wearing turbans lifted in French schools.