Senator John Kerry, who had raised the hackles of the Sikhs with a remark that was seen to equate the community with terrorism, has issued an apology and set the record straight.
The apology by Kerry, the Democratic front-runner in the US presidential race, came just when the issue was threatening to snowball with a host of Sikh organisations up in arms against the remark. Several leading lights of the community petitioned him for a swift retraction and an unconditional apology.
While holding forth on terrorism during his campaign run in Oklahoma, Kerry had spoken of acts of terrorism by the likes of IRA in Northern Ireland, the Basque separatists in Spain and “the Sikhs in India”.
In his clarification, Kerry said that his reference was only to some terrorist groups which had invoked Sikhism in the past to commit acts of terror in India. “I realise that, like me, the vast majority of Sikhs in the United States and worldwide abhor terrorism,” he said.
Expressing regrets for the “imprecision of my statement (that) led to this misunderstanding”, Kerry said: “I am deeply sorry for the offence caused by this comment.” He then went on to speak about the “enormous and invaluable contributions” made by the Sikh Americans.
Kerry also emphasised that all through his Senate career, he had worked to protect people of all faiths, including the Sikhs. “I have supported legislation condemning bigotry and acts of violence or discrimination against Sikh Americans, and I have fought to prohibit the practice of racial profiling and for a stronger hate crimes law.”
Following the apology, Dr Rajwant Singh of the Washington-based Sikh Council on Religion and Education said Senator Kerry did have “a compelling record of standing up for the rights of all minorities including Sikhs in the US”.