Complaints To Police and Court Cases
Though some jokes were created by the Sikhs themselves, now it has gone out of hand.
— P. S. Pasricha, the second Sikh police commissioner of the Mumbai Police.In March 2007, around 25 Sikh youths from Sikh Media and Culture Watch (SMCW) demanded arrest of Ranjit Parande, a Matunga-based book seller, for stocking the Santa and Banta Joke Book, a collection of Sardarji jokes. Based on a complaint filed by a Sikh businessman, the Mumbai Police arrested Parande under section 295 of the Indian Penal Code, for "hurting religious sentiments." The SMCW members alleged that several of the Sardarji jokes border on the obscene, and have begun to have a demoralising effect on the Sikh youths.
They later requested the cyber cell department of the Mumbai police crime branch to "ban jokes on the internet" which portray Sikhs as objects of ridicule. Swaranjit Singh Bajaj, the vice-president of SMCW, blamed the Sikh humorists such as Navjot Singh Sidhu and Khushwant Singh for perpetuating the stereotypical image of Sikhs. Khushwant Singh, a Sikh author who has included several Sardarji jokes in his joke books, received a notice from the secretary of SGPC in 2004, asking him to desist from hurting the sentiments of the community. Singh also received similar notices from some Marwari organizations, the Shiv Sena and the RSS. However, he continued to include Sardarji jokes in his subsequent joke books. In the preface to his 7th joke book, he claimed that most of his Sardarji jokes were "pro-Sardarji".
In December 2007, India's second biggest mobile operator Reliance Communications and its head Anil Ambani were charged by Lucknow police with "insulting a religion or faith", after Reliance sent a Sardarji joke as its "joke of the day". Many Sikhs in Meerut staged violent protests. The joke originated from the website santabanta.com, and was supplied to Reliance by OnMobile, a third party supplier. Reliance stated that the it was not responsible for content provided by OnMobile, but apologized its subscribers and the Sikh community in Uttar Pradesh. OnMobile also issued a public apology.
Read more about this topic: Sardarji Jokes, Reaction From The Sikh Community
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