During Obama’s visit to India, Indian Member of Parliament Harsimrat Badal (of the opposition Akali Party) directly conveyed to the US President her concerns about Obama’s avoidance of Amritsar:
According to Harsimrat, the US president was gracious enough to acknowledge the sentiment and replying that his present visit was a “rushed affair” and that he would try to come for a longer visit next time, during which he would like to visit Punjab. “The pleasure would be all mine,” is what he is believed to have told Harsimrat.
She also brought up the TSA’s new policy of additional turban-screening to the US Ambassador to India as well:
She told him that apart from male Sikhs, even the females were asked to go through elaborate security checks due to their long, unshorn hair which they normally roll into a bun. “The females are being asked to open the hairbun and to explain all those hairpins in it. It is so embarrassing for Sikh families when they are made to do all this and with all the strangers looking around,” Harsimrat told Roemer, even as Montek also reportedly supported her contention.
“You have so many advanced gadgets, including the newly incorporated body scans, then why are the Sikhs being subjected to this humiliation,” she told the ambassor, who, according to her assured that he would look into this issue.
Who knows if the US will take these issues seriously? Until then, there will probably continue to hover a cloud of disappointment on the part of US Sikhs towards Obama. One also wonders if the PM of India, Manmohan Singh, also a turban-wearing Sikh, brought up any of these issues with the US President as well. Considering his past failures to represent any Sikh interests, my guess is Manmohan Singh remained relatively mum.
[Ed ~ On an aside:]
Turban frisking: SAD asks PM to take up issue with Obama
PTI reports : http://www.hindustantimes.com/Turban-frisking-SAD-asks-PM-to-take-up-issue-with-Obama/Article1-623192.aspx
Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal has strongly objected to the US federal transportation officials' instructions relating to frisking of turbans of Sikhs at airports. Terming the instructions as "discriminatory", SAD president and deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take up this issue with US President Barack Obama during the latter's ongoing visit.
In a communique to the prime minister, Badal alleged that the latest instructions by the US authorities were an attempt to target the Sikh community and harass them at the airports, and demanded its "immediate withdrawal".
According to the instructions, Sikhs after undergoing thorough whole body image scanners would have an option to get their turbans patted by FTA officials or themselves.
After the checking of turbans, FTA would also check the hands of Sikhs for traces of chemicals, if any, Badal said.
He said that turban was the religious attire of every Sikh and disrespect to it would hurt the sentiments of the community.
Urging the Prime Minister to strongly take up the issue with Obama tomorrow, the SAD president said Sikhs all over the world expect him to convey the sentiments of the community to the US President.