Online petitioners urge Obama to raise Sikhs issues during India visit

Washington: An online White House petition asking US President Barack Obama to raise the issues of Sikh community during his India visit next month has attracted more than 100,000 signatures.

Launched on December 1 by New York-based 'Sikh for Justice', the online petition "urges Obama to question 'Why Indian constitution labels 'Sikhs' as Hindus?' and raise the issues of 'Sikh Genocide' and 'Sikhs' Right to Self-determination".

Till yesterday, the online petition on the White House website had attracted more than 114,000 signatures. Any online petition with more than 100,000 signatures in less than a month normally attracts a response from the White House.

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US, Sikh for Justice had launched a similar on-line petition.

But after "standard fraud check", the White House removed more than 85,000 signatures from the petition that asked Obama to cancel his planned meeting with Modi.