Chandigarh - August 20, 2013: Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president Manjit Singh GK, during his recent visit to France, announced that the DSGMC would organise the International Sikh Summit in New Delhi next year, for which the schedule would be announced shortly.
A three-member delegation of the DSGMC, led by GK, took part in the fifth annual global Sikh civil and human rights conference held in Bobigny city of France last week.
"The summit would make Sikhs from all over the globe stand united. The DSGMC would also rope in the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) for the event," GK had announced, adding that the summit would set a roadmap for Sikh leaders and the intelligentsia to take up issues concerning Sikhs globally, including the dignity of the turban.
Sikhs from India, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Pakistan, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, the UK and the US attended the conference.
Before the international summit, the DSGMC, according to GK, would create awareness about Sikh tenets, ethos, culture, traditions and the turban as an inseparable part of the Sikh identity. The DSGMC would also reach out to ambassadors and high commissioners of various foreign countries in India to create awareness about Sikhs and Sikhism.
Manjinder Singh Sirsa, DSGMC general secretary, and honorary adviser, international affairs, Puneet Singh Chandhok were also part of the delegation. In his address, Sirsa said there was an urgent need to bring all Sikhs settled in various countries into the mainstream and the DSGMC would make vehement efforts in the direction.
The conference, whose theme was "Justice delayed is justice denied", also included discussions on the turban ban in Europe, preserving Sikh heritage, imparting education to children of Sikhs and the issue of capital punishment.
Sirsa said the DSGMC was in the process of setting up a state-of-the-art museum wherein scriptures and relics of Sikh Gurus would be displayed.