Drunken thug, 25, ripped Sikh man's turban off his head for a joke causing the victim to be shunned by his own community

A man ripped a Sikh supermarket worker's turban off his head and told friends to film the incident and put it on YouTube during a drunken joke, a court has heard. 

Ashley Cicatello, 25, had spent the afternoon drinking beer and Jagerbomb shots when he spotted the victim in a Sainsbury's supermarket on December 27, last year.

Cicatello, from Dunkirk, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, told his friends: 'Get this on record. This is going on YouTube' before running up behind the victim and yanking the turban off his head.

The prank caused the victim to be ostracised from his own community, it was claimed. 

Cicatello sprinted off with the turban and was chased through the store before being wrestled to the ground by security guards.

He later admitted to police that he had 'been an absolute prat' and had done it because he wanted to be the 'class clown.'

with thanks : DAILYMAIL : LINK : for pics & detailed news.

Sikh shot at in USA in suspected hate crime

Press Trust of India 

WASHINGTON, 26 FEB: In an apparent hate crime incident in the USA, a Sikh man was shot at several times by truck-borne unidentified gunmen in Florida. 

Kanwaljit Singh, 46, was attacked by the truck-borne assailants near Daytona Beach on Saturday night. He was later admitted to a hospital where he is undergoing treatment. 

Mr Kanwaljit, who was accompanied by his son, received multiple bullet injuries in his thigh and torso, officials said. His son managed to escape unhurt. 

“Although no clear motive (behind the attack) has been established, initial indications are this shooting was not a random act. There was no previous confrontation between occupants of either vehicle,” Mr Wayne Miller, Port Orange's assistant chief of police, was quoted as saying by local daily Daytona Beach News Journal. 

Meanwhile, the authorities yesterday said that the incident will be probed by the agencies as a hate crime. 

Condemning the act, the Sikh American Legal Defence and Education Fund and 'Sikh Coalition' called on the law enforcement officials and requested them to conduct a thorough probe into the incident. 

The shooting incident comes days after US lawmakers asked the department of justice and the FBI to track the hate crimes committed against Sikhs, Hindus and Arab Americans. 

So far more than 40 Congressmen have signed onto the letter addressed to the department of justice and the FBI, with lawmakers Judy Chu, Eliot Engel, Bill Pascrell, Adam Schiff, Gary Peters, Tulsi Gabbard, Ami Bera, Michael Honda, and Eric Swalwell being the original signatories. 

with thanks : THESTATESMAN : LINK

Manjit Singh GK is DSGMC chief, Sirsa general secretary

Manjit Singh GK (54) is new president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC). 

The new-elected members of the committee on Tuesday elected him president unanimously. GK, son of late jathedar Santokh Singh, had led the the Delhi unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) to victory in the committee's elections, defeating Paramjit Singh Sarna and his SAD (Delhi).

GK's election was held in the presence of the Akal Takht jathedar, Giani Gurbachan Singh, who is ex-officio member of the committee without the voting right. The jathedars of Keshgarh Sahib, Patna Sahib and Hazoor Sahib are also ex-officio members of the committee.'

Manjinder Singh Sirsa (39), youth president of SAD (B) in Delhi, was obvious choice for the committee's general secretary, and he got his reward for defeating Sarna, outgoing president of the committee, in the election held on January 27. Sirsa is considered close to the Badals, whose family rules Punjab.

Party patron Parkash Singh Badal, who is also chief minister of Punjab; and party president, Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is deputy CM of Punjab, cleared the names of the committee president, general secretary and other office-bearers. As per the provisions of the DSGMC Act of 1971, the director of gurdwara elections, GP Singh, nominated Kulmohan Singh as house chairman, who asked for names for the post of the committee president.

Avtar Singh Hit proposed GK's name, which was supported by Onkar Singh Thapar first before all member gave their unanimous consent. The SAD (B) had bagged 37 of the 46 seats in the January 27 elections, ousting Sarna-led SAD-Delhi, which could win just eight seats (an Independent got one). Of the eight winners from the Sarna group, only two were present in Tuesday's meeting, where the 51-member house elected the president and other office-bearers. Of the 51 members, 46 were elected directly by 4.5 lakh Sikh voters in Delhi, while five were nominated.

Hit, who was DSGMC president from 2000 to 2002 and Delhi-unit president of the SAD (B) for many years, was in the race for the top post but failed to garner the support of his party leaders. Once close to Parkash Singh Badal, he was distanced from the party after GK was given reins in 2008. Other than Hit, Sirsa and first-time member Onkar

Singh Thapar also were contenders for the top post. The SAD (B) regained control of the DSGMC after an 11 years. It lost consecutively in 2002 and 2007.

The post of senior vice-president went to Ravinder Singh Khurana, while Dhanwant Singh became vice-president and Harmeet Singh Kalka secretary of the DSGMC. A 10-member executive committee was also named.

with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK

The throne of Maharaja Ranjit Singh

The throne of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, in all humility he never used it, instead prefered to sit on the floor next to it.

Must view !

Sikhs protest outside French embassy in Delhi over turban ban

VADODARA: Sikh groups led by United Sikhs organization, Akali Dal (Delhi) and Sikh Forum held a peaceful protest outside the French Embassy in Delhi and submitted a memorandum addressed to French President Francois Hollande against the ongoing turban ban in French public schools.

"If there was any doubt about the legality of France's (turban ban) action, the eminent jurists of the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) recently pronounced that France had violated the human rights of both Bikramjit Singh and Ranjit Singh by denying them their religious right to wear a turban....The global Sikh community says that France is able to reverse the turban ban for a photo ID because France has since adopted biometric ID documents, in compliance with EU regulations, which rely on facial features and fingerprints and do not require a bare head for the photo on ID documents," Mejindarpal Kaur, UK based legal director of United Sikhs stated in the memorandum, that was submitted by a delegation led by protesters.

"Our argument against the turban ban in schools is that when a Sikh schoolchild removes his turban, his joora(top knot), which denotes that he is a Sikh, is visible. Hence, the French law that purports to ban the ostensible display of religious signs in schools should not apply to the Sikhs because it does not serve its purpose as a Sikh's religious sign (unshorn hair tied as a joora) will be ostensibly visible when the turban is removed," the memorandum stated.

United Sikh's India director Gurpreet Singh SAD's Manjit Singh GK and Onkar Singh Thapar, DGMC's Daljeet Singh and Sikh Forum's RS Chatwwal also held discussions with Jean-Marc Sere-Charlet, minister counsellor at the French embassy, after handing over the memorandum.

with thanks : Times of India : LINK

Deep Money Singh : Famous Punjabi Singer in SGND Khalsa College

Kite Flying Festival in SGND Khalsa College : Joy of women's liberation

NSS UNIT of SGND Khalsa College,Dev Nagar,University of Delhi,organised a Kite Flying Festival on 14th February 2013 with a purpose to promote feeling of Gender equality/Gender sensitization and spread message of Women's Liberation.

Female Students/ Female Staff members flew the kite and Male Students/ Male Staff Members helped them with holding Kite spool / Charkhi.

Event was highly appreciated by the students as well as the satff.

KITE FLYING FESTIVAL : NSS UNIT SGND Khalsa College,University of Delhi

NSS UNIT of  SGND Khalsa College is organising a Kite Flying Festival with the display of Antardhvani 2013 ( DU Festival ) and with the slogans for the Gender Sensitization.

Female Students/ Female Staff members will fly the Kite and Male Students/ Male Staff Members will be helping them with holding Kite spool / Charkhi.

Purpose is to promote the feeling of Gender equality/Gender sensitization and Women' s Liberation.

Time : 10.30 AM to 11.30 AM

Venue: College Premises/Terrece

'Preachers should spare a month for Sikh Panth'

Akal Takht on Monday urged the'pracharaks' or preachers to "donate time" by sparing a month every year for the Sikh Panth in order to take the message and philosophy of Sikhism to every house. Gurbachan Singh, head of the top temporal seat of the Sikh community, made the call while addressing the valedictory function of the three-day 'Naam Simran Gurmat Samagam' here.

"Those 'pracharaks' who can afford to donate time and have fulfilled family responsibilities should volunteer to spare one month for Panth", Singh said.

"This type of donation of time, along with traditional donations, was necessary for carrying the message of Sikhism to different places the world over, saving our youths from apostasy, drugs and other evils and for respecting women, especially the girl child", he said.

He also urged the entire Sikh community to commit itself to Akal Takht, adding that the results of the recent elections of Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) were a "slap on the faces of all those forces which had made sinister attempts to erode the supremacy of Akal Takht".

"Certain forces were always on the lookout to marginalise Sikh institutions, including Akal Takht, in order to weaken Sikh community but they will never succeed in the nefarious designs", he said. 

with thanks : Hindustan Times : LINK

A Weekend at the Golden Temple : Pics : Huffingtonpost

With thanks : HUFFINGTONPOST : LINK : for more PICS. Must view.