SIR – I am quite dismayed to learn that Shipley MP Philip Davies is troubled and finds it offensive that turban-wearing Sikhs are exempt from wearing safety helmets at workplaces (T&A, May 16).
Both Houses of Parliament have thoroughly debated the point he is trying to make many times before. He seems to be flogging a dead issue, perhaps to get some media attention or has run out of some significant debate worthy ideas.
For his knowledge, I would like to remind him that Sikhs intensely campaigned for ten years in the 1960s to have a right to wear a turban as bus conductors and drivers.
After a legal battle (Mandla v Dowell Lee), they were recognised as a distinct ethnic group by the Law Lords in 1983 and the Sikh turban was recognised as a manifest religious tenet.
After a protracted campaign, they won the exemption from wearing a crash helmet when riding a motorbike under the Road Traffic Act (1972). Later, they forcefully argued to win the exemption from wearing safety helmets at construction sites in 1989.
I hope the Sikhs ignore his trivial intervention and don’t start preparing themselves for another ferocious campaign to preserve this exemption, this time in Northern Ireland.
Dr Ramindar Singh MBE, Chatsworth Road, Pudsey
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