THE chair of a Scottish charity which tackles racism has apologised for mocking a visually impaired Sikh leader.
Adil Bhatti, who fronts Glasgow's Pollokshields Development Agency (PDA), said on social media that he was going for an eye check-up as he did not "want to be called ranjeet Singh lol". Singh was the founder of the Sikh empire and is a holy figure in the religion.
A Sikh leader last night condemned the comments.
The PDA was incorporated in 2006 for the benefit of people in Pollokshields, but this was expanded recently to included the population of Glasgow South. Its founding charter states that it should promote the area's inhabitants without regard for sex, sexual orientation or religious and political opinions. Promoting racial equality is also listed as an aim and objective. However, Bhatti's remarks are said to have damaged inter-faith relations.
Bhatti, who is also listed as a director of the Ethnic Minorities Law Centre, is a well-known political activist in the city. He was a Labour supporter but quit the party in 1990s and defected to the SNP, where he became convener of Scottish Asians for Independence.
However, he left the SNP in a blaze of publicity in 2012, citing the Nationalists' decision to reverse its anti-Nato stance. He has since rejoined Labour.
Speaking to the Sunday Herald, Bhatti last night, he said he had used the reference to Ranjeet Singh "as a joke". "I didn't mean to harm anyone's feelings. If someone feels that way, I would apologise to them."
Charandeep Singh, the general secretary of the Glasgow Gurdwara, a place of worship for Sikhs, said: "If Adil Bhatti is found to have ridiculed this important historical figure and regards his visual disability something to mock then I am seriously concerned about his judgment.
"Mr Bhatti, who occupies senior positions on public bodies, has insulted both the Punjabi Sikh community and those who are visually impaired. He must answer how he can credibly maintain a public role in an organisation representing Pollokshields."
Norman MacLeod, an SNP councillor in Pollokshields, said: "Adil Bhatti and his Labour friends might find visual impairment funny, and that's simply not acceptable."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article