By Samachar Vishesh
News
Chandigarh 07th 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 550th 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 550th Birth Anniversary celebrations
of Guru Nanak.
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