Washington, DC: June 30, 2009 – Following the publication of an offensive comic strip earlier this month by India Herald, SALDEF and the Texas Sikh community have secured a formal apology from the newspaper’s editor.
In the June 3, 2009 edition of India Herald, – a newspaper based out of Houston, TX – a comic strip was published showing an aide to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh giving an excuse as to why he was not able to answer the phone. Responding to the caller asking about the Prime Minister’s whereabouts, the aide said “Ummm…he’s getting a haircut and shave.”
Writing to India Herald on June 15, 2009, SALDEF noted that “the cartoon demonstrates bad taste and disrespect toward members of the Sikh faith, who are required to maintain uncut hair as a matter of religious obligation,” and called upon the newspaper to issue an immediate apology.
The written apology from the editor appeared in the June 17th edition of the newspaper and read as follows:
“On behalf of India Herald and its management we would like to offer our sincere apologies and regrets to the Sikh American community of North America for the grievance caused by a recent cartoon in the paper. We would like to reiterate that India Herald does not in any way promote racial stereotyping in its content and is fully committed to celebrating diversity, equality and respect for all religions and communities.”
“We appreciate the prompt response and apology from Mr. Rajiv Gadgil, the Editor of India Herald,” said SALDEF Associate Executive Director, Jasjit Singh. “This experience highlights the need for Sikh Americans to be vigilant against media bias and insensitivity toward our community.”
SALDEF would like to thank the Sikh American community of Houston, and specifically Mr. Jasbir Singh Sethi, for their swift action in notifying SALDEF and contacting the newspaper editor regarding this matter. We encourage all of our constituents to keep a close eye on all forms of media and report incidents of media bias and insensitivity to SALDEF immediately via email at mediawatch@saldef.orgor at (202) 393-2700.