Gurinder Singh Khalsa Urges Sikh, Social Bodies to Come Forward to Support His Efforts

By 121 News

Chandigarh 07^th Aug:- Gurinder Singh Khalsa, the Indian-American Sikh activist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who has blazed trails for presenting religious freedom and has been awarded the prestigious 2019 Rosa Parks Trailblazer Award in January after being selected for Champions of the Diversity by Indiana Minority Business Magazine in the United States of America (USA).

The award has been given for his campaign that forced the USA Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to change their Headgear Policy towards turban of the Sikh community and for his continued demonstration of courage and compassion.

Gurinder Singh during  a press conference held at Chandigarh Press Club, urges the Sikh and other social bodies to come forward and support him in spreading the word about a short film based on his real life incident. As after this incident, a relief has been provided to all the Sikhs at the US international airports during the security check.

Gurinder said that he urge the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee, and other social organisations to come forward and show the short film 'Singh' to the public in their established institutions. The film will be available for premier freely in the month of November, when the entire world will be celebrating 550^th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Ji. The film has been made in English language for spreading the word internationally, but for Punjab, we are dubbing the same in Punjabi language so the language does not become a barrier.

In the USA, Khalsa started the nationwide effort that he was denied from boarding a flight in 2007 because of he refused to remove his turban after successfully passing through each security measure at the Buffalo International Airport. As per norms, Khalsa was asked by the US authorities to get 25,000 signatures on the petition for changing TSA policy towards turban of Sikh community but due to his untiring efforts he managed to get 67,000 signatures and forced the US Congress to change the policy for turban. This has given a relief to entire community as now the TSA agents cannot touch Sikh turbans as per new policy if they have successfully passed the security measures at the airports without sounding any alarms.

Inspired by this incident of Gurinder, a very talented US based local filmmaker Jenna Ruiz, 19, has written and directed a powerful and inspirational movie 'SINGH'. In this short film, Gurinder is made to choose between his religious beliefs and his flight to see his mother in her last days.

Last month, the movie 'SINGH' won 'Short of the Year' award at the Covellite International Film Festival that takes place in Butte, Montana. Now it is scheduled to be premiered in India in November 2019 during the 550^th Birth Anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak.