India persuades France to revoke Sikh turban ban

New Delhi, Mar 15: Preneet Kaur, the minister of state for external affairs, persuaded France to revoke the ban on Sikh turbans by instigating fear of creating a faulty identity database, which would prove costly to the country amid the global terror threat.

Kaur has conveyed to Paris that by taking pictures of Sikhs without the turban as identity markers, they are creating faulty database.

"The plea that we have taken is that the French government is taking photographs and fingerprints as identity markers. However, if Sikhs are photographed without turbans, then they are accumulating wrong records because normally, a Sikh will always wear a turban," Kaur said adding that Indian demand of allowing turbans in France was under active consideration.

"The matter is being pursued and we are hopeful it will be resolved," she said.

As per the law passed in 2004, Sikhs are required remove turbans when being photographed for a driving licence. It also banned all ostentatious religious symbols and signs in all public places such as schools, hospitals and town halls.

The repeated requests from the Sikh community in the country to revoke the ban has gone in vain till now.

OneIndia News