SAD to move bill on Sikh identity: Sukhbir Badal

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CHANDIGARH: The Sikhs are an independent religion. They need an independent identity. Why shouldn’t the Constitution reflect that? SUKHBIR BADAL, president, SAD

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will bring a bill in Parliament to amend a constitutional provision that brackets Sikhs with Hindus, the party’s president Sukhbir Singh Badal said on Wednesday, adding that the clause robs Sikhism of an independent identity.

Badal said his party will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and approach other parties before bringing an amendment to Article 25(2).

“The Sikhs are an independent religion. So they need to get an independent identity. Why shouldn’t the Constitution reflect that?” Badal, the former deputy chief minister of Punjab, where his party held power for two consecutive terms, said in an interview.

“The separate Sikh identity needs to be clarified. We are not against anybody. But, it’s a very major issue for us and we will fight for it,” he added.

The SAD is a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government.

The statement is at odds with a long-standing position of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) that Sikhs are “Keshadhari Hindus” (Hindus with unshorn hair) – a description that rankles large sections of the Sikh commu- nity. In recent times, though, there has been a change in this position. The RSS “respects our faith as a separate religion,” GS Gill, national president of the Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, an RSS affiliate that works in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan to spread the RSS’ ideology, said in October.

SAD’s plan reflects a renewed attempt at identity politics by the party, which lost support from its core Sikh constituency in the