As legislators expressed alarm over the event and dubbed it “religious discrimination,” the Indian Embassy in Washington raised the matter of a Sikh New York State Trooper being prohibited from growing a beard with high levels of the administration.
For his wedding in March of last year, New York State Trooper Charanjot Tiwana asked for permission to grow a beard. His plea was turned down, nevertheless, on the grounds that growing a beard may endanger his safety if he had to use a gas mask.
Indian representatives in this country raised the issue with the New York State Governor’s office, and Taranjit Singh Sandhu, India’s ambassador to the US, brought it up with high-ranking members of the Biden administration. According to authorities here, the Governor’s office and the New York State Police are also working on it.
The refusal of Tiwana’s request to grow his beard was described as “a concerning incident of religious discrimination” in the New York State Police by Assemblyman David Weprin, who represents Queens in the New York State Assembly.
Weprin said that he supported the Religious Garb Law, which was passed into law in 2019, in a post on the social networking site X, previously known as Twitter, so that “no one will have to choose between practicing their religion and doing their job.” Weprin demanded that the New York State Police take action right away to accommodate Tiwana in compliance with state law, stating, “Quite frankly, I am appalled by these discriminatory practices and clear violation of state law.” According to Sgt. Gurvinder Singh, president of the Sikh Officers Association, “New York State is the most diverse in the country, and if we don’t let those officers serve with their religion and their faith, we won’t have enough police officers,” a story in CBS News reported him as saying.
A representative for the New York State Police was cited in the article as stating, “We recently changed our procedures with regard to facial hair… A protocol for the creation and distribution of turbans is presently being developed by the New York State Police Uniform and Equipment Committee. Harjinder Singh Dhami, the president of the supreme Sikh religious organization Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, wrote to Sandhu and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar “to raise a strong objection to discriminatory policy” of the NY State Police “of forcing Sikh troopers to cut hair & protect the rights of Sikh community.” The biggest police force in the nation, the New York City Police Department (NYPD), said in 2016 that Sikh policemen will be permitted to wear turbans and beards while on duty.
