US Ambassador Visits ‘Darbar Sahib’; SCI Remarks on ‘Vande Mataram’ Favor Sikhs

September

2026

US Ambassador to India Sergio Gor visited Darbar Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar on 28 Sep as part of a high-level, 28-member American delegation comprising prominent US senators, senior government officials, and foreign policy scholars. The apex Sikh management body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Harjinder Singh Dhami and Sri Akal Takht Sahib (Eternal Throne) Jathedar (leader) Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargajj met Gor and discussed various issues concerning the Sikh community. Amid the diplomatic engagement, acting president of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), Emaan Singh Mann, along with party workers, gathered outside the shrine's main entrance and briefly raised slogans such as 'Khalistan Zindabad' (Long live Khalistan) and 'God Bless America' before security personnel intervened and dispersed the group. Meanwhile, the Akal Takht Secretariat has sought a written explanation from Sri Guru Singh Sabha Gurdwara Association, Surrey, British Columbia over an alleged lapse in the handling and transportation of sacred birs (tomes) of Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh scripture and charter). Some Sikhs from Toronto recently visited the Gurdwara to receive sacred birs. The Gurdwara management allowed the birs to be taken to another location without checking whether the vehicles complied with Sikh maryada (code of conduct). Concurrently, Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Sikhs have moved to get the KPK Sikh Anand Karaj Bill, 2026, in the provincial assembly, seeking legal recognition and registration of Sikh marriages. Furthermore, in its initial remarks on the Indian government’s decision that the National Song ‘Vande Mataram’, which venerates Hindu Goddess Durga in its later stanzas, is mandatory to sing by all Indians, Justice Joymalya Bagchi of the Supreme Court of India said, 'It is for the democratically-elected state to decide and give aspiration as to what the National Song is, whether it should be two stanzas or four stanzas. But nobody can infract Article 25 & 26 (religious freedom) or subject a conscientious objector to penal consequences…the conscientious objector can recite one or all stanzas of the National Song without subjecting himself to criminal prosecution.' The remarks come as a relief for the Sikhs whose religion mandates that they must not revere any God or figure other than the ten Gurus and the Guru Granth Sahib.