A Shiromani Akali Dal MP alleged that Sikhs were being "deliberately targeted" in Italian airports and charged the government for its failure to safeguard the interests of the community despite assurances.
In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Harsimrat Kaur Badal said she was registering a strong protest on behalf of the entire community against the "ill-treatment" of Sikhs at airports in Italy and other countries. Referring to the latest incident of Jet Airways commander Ravijodh Singh Dhupia, who was forced to remove his turban at Milan airport, she pointed out the failure of the Congress-led UPA regime in pressurising the Italian government in this regard.
"It was intolerable and unfortunate that the officials deployed on international airports time and again harassed Sikhs by removing their turbans on the pretext of security checks," she said. The Bathinda MP lamented that repeated incidents in Italy has proved that the Centre has failed to convey to the Italian government and others not to force Sikhs remove their turbans. She added that asking a Sikh to remove his turban amounted to an "atrocity".
Condemning the act, the SAD MP said that despite several assurances by External Affairs Minister in the Lok Sabha, such incidents have not stopped. "Such behaviours in the airports of Italy are unacceptable to Sikh community," she said. Earlier golfer Jeev Milkha Singh Singh's coach Amritinder Singh was asked by the Milan airport security staff to remove his turban, not just once but twice, during arrival as well as departure, she pointed.