Thaindian News

Chandigarh, Nov 8 (IANS) He may have missed visiting the Golden Temple this time, but US President Barack Obama has assured that he will do so on his next trip to India.

Obama told this to Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal during the dinner hosted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence in New Delhi Sunday evening.

According to Badal, Obama said he would visit the Golden Temple in Punjab the next time he comes to India.

Badal conveyed the sentiments of Punjabis in general and the Sikh community in particular to Obama after the US president cancelled his visit to Amritsar at the last minute.

Badal, Akali Dal MP from Bathinda and wife of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, was the only MP from across Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand to meet the US president.

“President Obama said the scheduled visit to Amritsar had to be altered because of time constraint. The president said he was himself very keen to visit the holiest of the holy Sikh shrines as it is a beacon of spiritual enlightenment, love and universal brotherhood and that he would ’speak to (my) people to ensure that Amritsar featured’ on his itinerary the next time he visits India,” Badal said in a statement here.

Obama, who was told about the resentment among Sikhs who were being subjected to checking of their turbans, which is a religious headgear, “promised to have a look at the issue”, Badal said.