NEW DELHI: Prominent members of the Sikh community expressed concern of the exclusion of the Sikh Regiment from the Republic Day parade in Delhi on Jan. 26.

Rami Ranger, chairman of the British Sikh Association, said Sikhs have been defending India for ages. In a Tweet, he asked why the Sikh Regiment was missing from the Republic Day Parade.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal termed the episode “sad and regrettable” in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying that the community was “hurt”.

In his letter, Badal said: “The absence of the Sikh regiment from the Republic Day parade was sad and regrettable”.

Badal urged the central government to issue necessary instructions and guidelines “to ensure that the Sikh Regiment is never kept out of Republic Day parade in future”.

“A widespread feeling of hurt and resentment (has been) caused by the non-inclusion of the Sikh Regiment in the Republic Day parade where French President Francois Hollande was the chief guest,” Badal said in the letter.

The Sikh community has been at loggerheads with the French government due to the latter’s ban on students wearing turbans in schools in France as it was seen as a religious symbol.

“The Republic Day parade is always regarded as a great occasion to showcase India’s multicultural and multireligious identity, highlighting its secular ethos.

“As a vibrant and fiercely patriotic minority community in the country, the Sikhs are always seen as the most powerful symbol of this multidimensional identity and secular character of the country,” Badal said.

“The Sikhs have been facing several problems in France which amount to the denial of freedom to observe the fundamental religious practices to the community, including a ban on the wearing of turbans one of the five symbols of their religion,” Badal added.