A young girl was barred admission into an MBBS course at the Sri Guru Ram Das Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Amritsar, a Sikh minority institution, on grounds that she plucked her eyebrows. Endorsing a hardline stand by high priests of Sikhism that she violated a fundamental tenet of the religion by plucking her eyebrows, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Saturday ruled that the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee was fully justified in doing so.

The Bench ruled that the Sikh minority quota could be restricted to candidates maintaining “Sikhi Swarup” or keeping their hair unshorn.

It said “the Sikh rehat-maryada (religious sanctity) requires Sikhs to keep their hair unshorn and even an act of dishonouring hair is taken as a taboo. An act of dyeing one’s hair is treated as an act of dishonouring hair.” Maintaining that “hair unshorn is a part of the religious consciousness of the Sikh faith”, the Court said if the religious community wishes to enforce the aforesaid norm as a pre-condition for admission, there is nothing wrong in this.

This is another case of carrying a simple issue too far. And worse still, our courts endorsing such primitive views. I understand the importance of unshorn hair in the Sikh religion and have the greatest regard for it. All religions preach truth, righteousness and tolerance. Appearance is but a minor issue.

I do not understand how the SGPC will implement their rules. What next? You mean to say all those pretty Sikh girls will have to have bushy underarms and hairy legs? And this is the criteria for a MBBS admission. Anybody will tell you that a surgery requires the operative site to be shaved before the procedure. Does this hospital not follow this procedure? And is it wrong to dye your hair to look younger? I do wish people thought logically instead of being blinded by fanatical views.

It shows us in such a poor light to the world. Of course, it didn’t take too long for the Sydney Morning Herald to pick it up and highlight our narrow mindedness. And we can go on screaming from the rooftops about discrimination. We need to set our house in order first.