For Sikh identity, amend Art 25: SAD

Ajay Banerjee

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 30

The demand to amend Article 25(2) of the Constitution, which clubs Sikhs with Hindus, reverberated yet again in Parliament with Shiromani Akali Dal’s Prof Prem Singh Chandumajra, while speaking on the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2017, in the Lok Sabha, maintaining the Sikhs had waited far too long to be granted a separate identity.  

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“Please amend clause 2 of Article 25 and give us justice,” he pleaded. Tarlochan Singh, former Rajya Sabha member, had made two attempts to get Article 25(2) amended through a private member’s Bill, but it could not be tabled. 

In 2012, Akali leader Rattan Singh Ajnala made a similar effort in the Lok Sabha but drew a blank and so did Rajya Sabha MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa (SAD) in 2014.

Dhindsa and Ajnala had argued that Article 25 granted the “right to freedom of religion”, which must be given to the Sikhs. Chandumajra reiterated much the same.

Clause 1 of Article 25 gives every person the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion. Clause 2 clubs the Sikhs with Hindus. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution, set up in 2000, via a resolution when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was PM, had  recommended that this Clause be reworded.