New Delhi, April 17, 2023: A girl donning a tricolour painted on her face was denied entry at Amritsar’s Golden temple, and a video of the incident has sparked controversy on social media. In the clip now going viral, the girl can be heard arguing with a gurdwara official, who allegedly stopped her from entering.
In the video, the staffer can be heard saying, “Punjab Hai" when a man who accompanied the girl asked him, “India nahi hai ye? (Is this not India?)". The video further shows an argument spiral up as the girl says, “What nonsense are you talking" to the staffer present.
1) A girl was stopped from entering Golden Temple because she had an Indian flag painted on her face.
— Anshul Saxena (@AskAnshul) April 17, 2023
The man who denied her entry into Golden Temple said, this is Punjab not India. pic.twitter.com/IfUi74poIk
Gurcharan Singh Grewal, General Secretary, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), later apologised for the incident, saying the staffer couldn’t recognise the flag as there was no Ashok Chakra on it. “This is a Sikh shrine. Every religious place has its own decorum…We welcome everyone…We apologize if an official misbehaved…The flag on her face was not our national flag as it didn’t have Ashoka Chakra. It could have been a political flag," he said.