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The petition has gains Momentum as more voices stand against it with 79,000 Signatures (34 Online +45,000 Offline) Comedians Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi and Sunil Pal have joined the campaign that seeks a ban on Sikhs jokes. Actor Manmeet Singh, RJ O P Rathore and Church of North India (CNI) have also come out in support […]

The petition has gains Momentum as more voices stand against it with 79,000 Signatures (34 Online +45,000 Offline)

Comedians Gurpreet Singh Ghuggi and Sunil Pal have joined the campaign that seeks a ban on Sikhs jokes. Actor Manmeet Singh, RJ O P Rathore and Church of North India (CNI) have also come out in support of the ban.

“The history of Sikh jokes goes back to the British era, as names like Santa and Banta were common those days. They were troubled by the martial race led and Maharaja Ranjit Singh had given them a tough time. That is why an attempt was made to defame Sikhs and I wonder why this trend started by them has not stopped,” said Ghuggi, who has featured in TV shows and Bollywood movies.

A global on-line petition started by Delhi Sikh community on change.org demanding a ban on Sikh jokes intended at ridiculing the community has gained momentum worldwide. This petition has more than 27,000 signatures online and around 45,000 signatures offline. “We expect to have 1, 00,000 signatures by the end of December 2015,” said Manjit Singh GK, president, Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee.

Charanjeet Singh, a spokesperson of DSGMC, said an online campaign started by the committee called for a ban on 5,000-odd websites that carry jokes which made fun of Sikhs like ’12 baj gaye’ and other taunts had got massive support from all sections of the society across the globe.

The thrust of the campaign is that Sikhs are the most vibrant, confident and generous community and these jokes “violate the fundamental right to life and to live with dignity,” and so the sites carrying them should be banned and install the filters to prevent them from making a re-entry.

DSGMC has also started an offline campaign during birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev at Gurdwara Rakabganj where the petition was put before Sikh masses and those who did not use internet were asked to join the campaign by signing on paper sheets. A record number of 20,000 offline signatures were gathered on one day with people unanimous of the need to stop racist jokes.

~ Source: Times Of India