LONDON: Dr Indarjit Singh, the director of a charity linking several Sikh organisations in the UK, has become the "first turbaned Sikh" member of the British Parliament.

"I am delighted to be the first turbaned Sikh in Parliament. It is an honour for the whole Sikh community," said Singh, the director of the Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO).

Recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission, the 79-year-old Singh will enter the House and sit as an independent.

"It gives me a new opportunity to do what I have always tried to do, to work with people of all beliefs to increase tolerance and understanding and work for greater social and political justice in society," said Singh, who was appointed OBE in 1996 and CBE in 2009.

Sikhs already in Parliament include the Conservative MP Paul Uppal, who does not wear a turban.

Singh, who is the first Sikh to have addressed a conference at the Vatican, said "the mantra of today's times - to look after ourselves because we are important - is creating a selfish and fragmented society in which rights are put before responsibility."
"We saw the worst features of this in the recent riots," he said, adding "I would like, in my small way, to work with like-minded people in all communities to reserve this trend."

Alternative source:

Dr. Indarjit Singh is one of the two new non-party-political peers announced by the British House of Lords Appointments Commission on Monday, September 5, 2011.

The new Sikh-Briton peer is Director of the Network of Sikh Organisations in the United Kingdom. He is also the Vice-Chair and founding member of the Inter Faith Network UK, a national body promoting inter-faith understanding, and is Head of the Sikh Chaplaincy Service.

He will sit on the crossbenches.

BIO
Dr. Indarjit Singh, CBE, is the Director of the Network of Sikh Organisations UK.  He is the Vice Chair and founding member of the Inter Faith Network UK, a national body promoting inter faith understanding, and is Head of the Sikh Chaplaincy Service, which works for the pastoral care of Sikhs in prisons.  He is also the co-ordinator of pastoral care for Sikhs in hospitals and in the Armed Forces, and a trustee of the World Congress of Faiths. Dr. Indarjit Singh has represented the UK Sikh community on national occasions, including the Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph and the Westminster Abbey Service to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the coronation of HM the Queen.

In 2008, he became the first Sikh to address a major conference at the Vatican, when he gave a keynote address on the need for respect and tolerance between world faiths. He has served on the Home Secretary’s Advisory Council on Race Relations; on the British Medical Association’s Medical Ethics Committee; and was a member of a working group which advised the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for International Development on issues of third world debt and poverty relief.

Since 1984, he has been a regular contributor to ‘Thought for the Day’ on Radio 4’s Today Programme, and has made frequent World Service broadcasts. He has a First Class Certificate in Mine Management and has worked on mining and civil engineering projects in the UK, India and Dubai.