Minister of state for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday tweeted his wishes at the news of the New York Police Department gets its first turbaned Sikh female auxiliary police officer.
“Delighted to see a turbaned lady officer in NYPD. Hope this fosters better understanding of Sikhism & Sikhs & corrects perceptions in US so that incident which happened with me in 2010 & recently with @Canada minister @NavdeepSBains do not recur. Sikhs are ambassadors of harmony (sic),” Puri tweeted while quoting restaurateur Harjinder Singh Kukreja’s tweet about the same.
Puri was referring to a recent incident where Canada cabinet minister Navdeep Bains, a practising Sikh, was recently was asked to remove his turban at an American airport.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah also commented on Puri’s tweet.
“Reminded me of the turbaned officer I saw in NYC when I was last there. I wanted to go up & say hi but he was in the middle of the road & more importantly would have wondered who the idiot was interfering in his work (sic),” Abdullah wrote, along with pictures of the turbaned Sikh officer.