Global Sikh Council pleads for enacting legislation to criminalize unethical conversions

Amritsar : The Global Sikh Council called upon the Punjab Chief Minister to enact laws in the Punjab state assembly to criminalize unethical conversions by force, coercion, inducement, allurement, and undue influence by fraudulent means besides to pass legislation and introduce policies to ensure and make it a condition that jobs in Punjab to be reserved for domiciles of Punjab for at least residing since 10 years.

This resolution has been unanimously passed by the Global Sikh Council (GSC), a confederation of national level Sikh organizations worldwide, in its three days conference and annual general meeting concluded here today.

In this international conference GSC members from 14 countries have presented their valuable reports and the theme of the conference was “Sikhi in the 21st century”. The conference was opened by GSC President Lady Singh – Dr. Kanwaljit Kaur OBE from UK in which besides delegates many well known Sikh personalities have presented their views through Zoom meetings during this meeting.

Giving more details Dr. Kanwaljit Kaur said the GSC has been alerting the Sikhs worldwide including SGPC and Punjab Government about unethical conversions taking place in Punjab. She informed that a comprehensive report has already been submitted to the Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann in this regard.

The GSC has asked the Punjab State to pass legislation against forceful and unethical conversions as the same was promised by Aam Admi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal during campaigning for Punjab assembly elections in January 2022.

Lady Singh further informed that during the conference SGPC President Advocate Harjinder Singh Dhami was the key note speaker. In his address he assured the gathering that he would personally go through the issues raised by the GSC president and would work towards their implementation.

Some of the issues raised by the GSC pertained to Dharam Parchaar specifically training of parcharaks, unethical conversions, preservation of Sikh heritage, implementation of Mool Nanak Shahi calendar, allocation of funds for education, health care and employment of needy people.

The special invitees to the conference included Partap Singh, Editor, Sikh Review, Tarlochan Singh Ex MP, Advocate H.S. Phoolka, KC Singh former ambassador, Dr. Karminder Singh Indonesia, Dr Gurpreet Singh Amritsar and Dr Kiranjot Kaur Amritsar.

All the speakers spoke at length about the current socio-economic challenges faced by Punjab, issues of unemployment, unethical conversions and put forth their views for creating a healthy society.It was also resolved by the GSC to create awareness against caste system and have one gurdwara and one cremation ground in a village sans to be on caste based.

In addition to this it was decided that Sikh Rehat Maryada passed in 1945 should be followed by all gurdwaras in the worldwide.In order to ensure promotion of mother tongue Punjabi in the Punjab, the GSC has also appealed to the Bhagwant Maan government to implement both the legislations enacted 14 years ago in true letter and spirit in the state.