{"id":1744,"date":"2008-04-14T16:38:34","date_gmt":"2008-04-14T08:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/04\/14\/sikhs-in-the-limelight\/"},"modified":"2008-04-14T16:47:59","modified_gmt":"2008-04-14T08:47:59","slug":"sikhs-in-the-limelight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/04\/14\/sikhs-in-the-limelight\/","title":{"rendered":"Sikhs in the limelight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karpal Singh defends Perak MB’s mistake<\/a> by saying that it was a honest mistake and not intended to insult the community. He said its a trivial matter. I think no need to blow up this issue. The guy apologised via SMS, perhaps should issue a proper statement in the papers. People can accept if you sincerely apologise over a honest mistake. However, if the MB keeps quiet…hmm…won’t look so good on him.<\/p>\n

Also, looks like the Sikh community may benefit from having a number of their kinsmen in the state assemblies and parliment. No one is saying that for such a small population, there are too many Sikh representatives. As long as the person can do the job and is qualified, no problems.<\/p>\n

All the best for new gurdwara extension application.<\/p>\n

Sikhs won’t take offence to Nizar’s gaffe: Karpal<\/strong>
\nBy : Sharanjit Singh
\nsource<\/a>
\nGEORGE TOWN, Mon:<\/p>\n

The Sikhs should not take offence to Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin’s reference to the community as Bengalis. Prominent Sikh politician Karpal Singh said it was obvious that Nizar did not mean to insult the community. He said it was also obvious that Mohammad Nizar had not referred to the community in a derogatory manner.<\/p>\n

Karpal explained that Sikhs had for decades been generally referred to as Bengalis out of ignorance by many. “It is a trivial matter and Sikhs should not take offence to what has been said. A Sikh is a Sikh by any name,” he said after accompanying Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to the Wadda Gurdwara Sahib here.<\/p>\n

Lim, who wore a bright red turban, later wished all Sikhs a happy Vasakhi and joined those present at the temple for langgar (vegetarian meal). Also there were his wife Betty Chew, Dato Keramat assemblyman Jagdeep Singh Deo and the temple president Sarjit Singh Naura.
\nKarpal was commenting on a New Straits Times report that some Sikhs in Perak were upset with their MB’s gaffe. It was reported that Nizar had referred to the Sikhs as Bengalis when wishing them a Happy Vasakhi at a function in Ipoh on Sunday.<\/p>\n

His comment at the Sikh and Tamil New Year celebrations raised eyebrows as the Sikhs gathered there had expected the head of the state government to know the difference between the two communities. Some Sikhs immediately left the function as they felt it was an affront to the community.<\/p>\n

Nizar later sent an SMS to the NST admitting he had made a mistake in referring to the Sikhs as Bengalis.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, Lim said the Penang state government would consider a request from the Sikhs here for land to expand their temple. He said the application would be put through the usual process and assured the community that the state government would try not to disappoint them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karpal Singh defends Perak MB’s mistake by saying that it was a honest mistake and not intended to insult the community. He said its a trivial matter. I think no need to blow up this issue. The guy apologised via SMS, perhaps should issue a proper statement in the papers. People can accept if you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[151],"class_list":["post-1744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-sikhs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1744\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}